DHS opens $1 billion tab with Palantir

The Department of Homeland Security has entered into a $1 billion purchase agreement with Palantir last week, cementing the software company’s role in the federal agency that oversees state programs Immigration enforcement.

According to contracting documents published last week, the blanket purchase agreement (BPA) awarded “is intended to provide Palantir commercial software licenses and division-wide maintenance and implementation services.” The agreement simplifies how DHS purchases software from Palantir, allowing DHS agencies such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to bypass the competitive bidding process for new purchases of up to $1 billion worth of products and services from the company.

Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Palantir announced the agreement internally on Friday. It comes as the company struggles to address growing tensions among employees over its relationship with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. After Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretty was shot and killed in January, Palantir employees… Slack channels are flooded They are demanding information about how the technology they are building will enable U.S. immigration enforcement. Since then, the company has updated its internal wiki, Provide some unreported details About her work with ICE, Palantir CEO Alex Karp recorded a video for employees in which he tried to justify the company’s work on immigration. WIRED reported last week. Throughout a nearly hour-long conversation with Courtney Bowman, Palantir’s global director of privacy and civil liberties engineering, Karp failed to address direct questions about how ICE operates the technology. Alternatively, he said workers could sign nondisclosure agreements to obtain more detailed information.

Akash Jain, Palantir’s chief technology officer and head of Palantir’s U.S. government partners, which works with U.S. government agencies, acknowledged these concerns in the email announcing the company’s new agreement with the Department of Homeland Security. “I realize this comes at a time of heightened concern, both externally and internally, about our current work with ICE,” Jin wrote. “While we don’t typically send out updates on new contract vehicles, at this moment it was especially important to provide context to help inform you about what this means — and what it doesn’t mean. There will be opportunities we run toward, and others we turn down — and that discipline is part of what has earned us the trust of DHS.”

In the email on Friday, Jain suggests that the five-year agreement could allow the company to expand its reach across the Department of Homeland Security to agencies such as the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Jain also said Palantir’s software could enhance protections for American citizens. “These protections help enable accountability through robust controls and audit capabilities, and support adherence to constitutional protections, especially the Fourth Amendment,” Jain wrote. (Critics of Palantir have argued that the company’s tools… Create a huge surveillance networkwhich may ultimately harm civil liberties.)

Over the past year, Palantir’s work with ICE has grown tremendously. Last April, WIRED magazine reported ICE paid Palantir $30 million to build the ImmigrationOS operating system. Which would provide “near-real-time visibility” to immigrants deporting themselves from the United States. Since then, it has been reported that the company has also developed a new tool called Enhanced Lead Identification and Targeting for Action (ELITE) which Creates maps of potential migration targetspulling data from DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

At the conclusion of his email to employees on Friday, Jain suggested that employees curious about the new DHS agreement come work on it themselves. “As a Palantir person, the best way to understand the work is to be directly involved in it. If you are interested in helping to shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir’s work across DHS, please reach out,” Jain wrote to the employees, who are sometimes referred to internally as fictional creatures of DHS. Lord of the Rings. “There will be a tremendous need for committed enthusiasts to turn this momentum into mission outcomes.”