Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding its outsourcing plans Migrant tracking to private surveillance companies, scrapping a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of a capless program with multimillion-dollar guarantees, according to new contracting records reviewed by WIRED.
Late last month, The Intercept reported ICE intends to hire bounty hunters and private investigators For verification work at street level. Contractors will confirm the home and work addresses of people targeted for removal by — among other techniques — photographing residences, documenting comings and goings, and monitoring workplaces and apartment complexes.
These recordings portrayed the initiative as a large but limited pilot program. Contractors were guaranteed as little as $250, and each could earn no more than $90 million, with the overall program capped at $180 million. This structure indicated a large scope, but still portrayed the effort as a controlled experiment, rather than an integral part of ICE’s removal operations.
Newly released mods break down this structure. ICE removed the program’s spending cap and replaced it with significantly higher per-vendor limits. Contractors may now earn up to $281.25 million individually and are guaranteed an initial task order worth at least $7.5 million. This shift signals to ICE’s contracting base that this is no longer an experiment, but an investment, and that the agency expects top-tier contractors to support the staffing, technology, and field operations needed to serve as a de facto arm of federal enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The proposed scope was already large. It described contractors receiving recurring monthly payments of 50,000 cases drawn from a list of 1.5 million people. Private investigators will confirm individuals’ locations not only through commercial data brokers and open source research, but through personal visits when needed. The filings outline a performance-based structure with bonus-like incentives: companies will be paid a fixed rate for each case, plus bonuses for speed and accuracy, with vendors expected to propose their own incentive rates.
The contract also authorizes the Department of Justice and other DHS components to issue their own orders under the program.
Previous filings have indicated that private investigators may gain access to ICE’s internal case management systems — databases containing photos, biographical details, immigration history, and other enforcement warrants. The revised filings reflect this, stating that contractors will not be allowed into the agency’s systems under any circumstances. Instead, DHS will send exported case packages to contractors containing a set of personal data about each target. This change limits direct exposure to federal regulations, but still places large amounts of sensitive information in the hands of private surveillance companies that operate outside public oversight.