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Apps and ankle monitors that track asylum seekers in real time wherever they go. Databases packed with personal information like fingerprints and faces. Investigative tools that can break into locked phones and search through gigabytes of emails, text messages and other files.
These are pieces of a technology arsenal available to President Trump as he aims to crack down on illegal immigration and carry out the largest deportation operation in American history. To do so, his administration can tap a stockpile of tools built up by Democrats and Republicans that is nearly unmatched in the Western world, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
A review of nearly 15,000 contracts shows that two agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Citizenship and Immigration Services — have spent $7.8 billion on immigration technologies from 263 companies since 2020.
The contracts, which ranged in size, were for mundane tech like phone services as well as advanced tools from big and small companies. Palantir, the provider of data-analysis tools that was co-founded by the billionaire Peter Thiel, received more than $1 billion over the past four years. Venntel, a provider of location data, had seven contracts with ICE totaling at least $330,000 between 2018 and 2022.
The Biden administration used many of these technologies for immigration enforcement, including in investigations of drug trafficking, human smuggling and transnational gang activity. How Mr. Trump may apply the tools is unknown, especially as the whereabouts of many immigrants are known and the government faces a shortage of officers and facilities to detain people.
But Mr. Trump has already made clear that his immigration agenda is strikingly different from his predecessor’s. This week, he announced a barrage of executive actions to lock down the borders and expel migrants and those seeking asylum.
Many companies are racing to meet the demand, offering gear to fortify borders and services to track immigrants once they are inside a country.
One technology that may be used immediately in mass deportations can identify the exact location of immigrants, experts said. About 180,000 undocumented immigrants wear an ankle bracelet with a GPS tracking device, or use an app called SmartLink that requires them to log their whereabouts at least once a day.
Location data collected through the program has been used in at least one ICE raid, according to a court document reviewed by The Times. In August 2019, during the first Trump administration, government agents followed the location of a woman who was being tracked as part of the program. That helped the agents obtain a search warrant for a chicken processing plant in Mississippi, where raids across the state resulted in the detention of roughly 680 immigrants with uncertain legal status.
The Trump administration also has access to private databases with biometrics, addresses and criminal records. Agents can obtain records of utility bills for roughly three-quarters of Americans and driver’s licenses for a third of Americans, according to a 2022 study by Georgetown University.
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