ICE Is Reportedly Utilizing A Palantir Database To Compile Dossiers On Protestors

As revealed by unsealed court docket paperwork, Department of Homeland Security brokers are allegedly creating dossiers on these which can be accused of observing or protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers. As first reported by Wired, these DHS information on protestors reportedly embody delicate information like photographs and license plate numbers and are saved in a database constructed by Palantir known as Investigative Case Management.

The new info comes from {a partially} unsealed court docket submitting a couple of January ICE operation that befell in Maine, in line with Wired. The submitting is a part of a category motion lawsuit, which led to a redacted model turning into accessible to the general public on Friday and revealing the purported database of ICE protestors.

According to the lawsuit, DHS brokers would observe and intimidate observers or protestors, generally by driving by their houses or labeling them as “Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor.” In one instance, an agent reportedly known as one of many plaintiffs on her cell and advised that she inform her partner “to not do something like that sooner or later as a result of people who find themselves doing issues like that may get added to a home terrorism watchlist.”

The attorneys representing the plaintiffs mentioned that this form of database creates a chilling impact on the First Amendment rights of protestors. On the opposite aspect, a DHS spokesperson advised Wired that the case was “meritless” and denied the existence of such a database that labels and tracks “home terrorists.”