ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database
ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database
美国移民及海关执法局（ICE）一直将抗议者照片存入 Palantir 数据库
An explosive and newly partially unsealed court filing alleges that the US Department of Homeland Security built up dossiers on ICE observers—including their photos, license plate numbers, and other information—and stored them in a system called the Investigative Case Management database, which was built by Palantir. 一份爆炸性且近期部分解封的法庭文件指控称，美国国土安全部（DHS）为 ICE 的观察员建立了档案——包括他们的照片、车牌号及其他信息——并将这些信息存储在一个名为“调查案件管理”（Investigative Case Management, ICM）的数据库中，该系统由 Palantir 公司开发。
Palantir did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Palantir 未立即回应置评请求。
A spokesperson for DHS calls the case “meritless” and says that “the underlying lawsuit is based on the lie that there is a database of ‘domestic terrorists’ run by DHS.” 国土安全部的一位发言人称该案件“毫无根据”，并表示“这起诉讼的基础是一个谎言，即国土安全部运营着一个所谓的‘国内恐怖分子’数据库。”
Plaintiffs allege in the filing, which is heavily based on documents produced by the government and depositions of DHS agents, that agents had a practice of intimidating protesters and observers. They did this, the filing says, by doing drive-bys of the observers’ homes and, in the case of at least one observer, requiring that she be referred to secondary inspection any time she tries to cross the border until at least January 2027. 原告在文件中指控称，这些文件主要基于政府提供的材料和国土安全部特工的证词，指控特工有恐吓抗议者和观察员的行为。文件称，他们通过驾车经过观察员住所进行骚扰，并且在至少一名观察员的案例中，要求她在 2027 年 1 月之前，每次过境时都必须接受二次检查。
“The government is treating people who exercise their First Amendment rights and seek to hold it accountable as criminal suspects, and that’s what we’re asking the court to stop,” says JoAnna Suriani, an attorney at Protect Democracy who is representing ICE observers in the case. “政府将行使第一修正案权利并寻求追究其责任的人视为刑事嫌疑人，这就是我们要求法院制止的行为，”代表 ICE 观察员的“保护民主”（Protect Democracy）组织律师 JoAnna Suriani 表示。
The filing focuses on agents’ conduct during “Operation Catch of the Day,” an immigration enforcement surge in Maine this past January. It is part of a proposed class action brought in federal court in Maine by four observers: Elinor Hilton, Colleen Fagan, Polyxenia Pantos, and Carlyn Williams. It was filed under seal in September, and a redacted version was made public Friday. 该文件重点关注了特工在今年 1 月缅因州移民执法行动“当日捕获行动”（Operation Catch of the Day）期间的行为。这是由四名观察员（Elinor Hilton、Colleen Fagan、Polyxenia Pantos 和 Carlyn Williams）在缅因州联邦法院提起的集体诉讼的一部分。该文件于 9 月以密封形式提交，并于周五发布了删减版本。
In particular, it describes how one DHS agent, referred to as “Agent J.C.” in the filing, used the Investigative Case Management (ICM) database, which the government describes as the case management system the ICE component Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) uses to document its investigations, to flag observers. 文件特别描述了一名被称为“J.C. 特工”的国土安全部人员如何利用“调查案件管理”（ICM）数据库来标记观察员。政府将该系统描述为 ICE 下属的国土安全调查处（HSI）用于记录调查工作的案件管理系统。
According to the filings, J.C. created ICM records on at least six observers; the government puts the number of people at eight. He labeled two people he filmed at a Home Depot parking lot with “Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor,” according to the filing, and sent photos of them and others to a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer so he could run a facial recognition search on them using an app called Mobile Query. 根据文件，J.C. 为至少六名观察员创建了 ICM 记录；政府称人数为八人。据文件显示，他在家得宝（Home Depot）停车场拍摄了两名抗议者，并将他们标记为“执法威胁，职业抗议者”，随后将他们及其他人的照片发送给一名美国海关及边境保卫局（CBP）官员，以便通过名为 Mobile Query 的应用程序对他们进行人脸识别搜索。
On January 20, Pantos briefly watched and photographed an arrest in Portland, Maine, standing a few car lengths away beside their spouse’s car. Hours later, per the filing, J.C. ran the car’s plate and pulled a report on the owner—Williams—from Accurint, a LexisNexis database for law enforcement, which listed her address, phone numbers, and cohabitants. J.C. then allegedly circulated her photo to his team, asking, “Was this the protestor.” Another agent, per the filing, replied that it didn’t match the woman he had dealt with at the scene; J.C. then told colleagues he was “adding them in ICM now.” 1 月 20 日，Pantos 在缅因州波特兰市短暂观察并拍摄了一次逮捕行动，当时他站在距离几辆车远的地方，旁边是其配偶的车。据文件显示，几小时后，J.C. 查询了该车的车牌，并从执法部门使用的 LexisNexis 数据库 Accurint 中调取了车主 Williams 的报告，其中列出了她的住址、电话号码和同住人员。随后，J.C. 据称将她的照片发给团队，询问：“这是那个抗议者吗？”据文件记载，另一名特工回复称这与他在现场处理的女性不符；J.C. 随后告诉同事他“现在就把他们加进 ICM”。
According to the legal filing, that afternoon, J.C. called Williams on her cell phone, identifying himself only as “the Department of Homeland Security.” According to Williams, he told her she “should encourage” her spouse, Pantos, “not to do anything like that in the future because people who are doing things like that might get added to a domestic terrorism watchlist.” J.C. testified in a deposition that he warned Williams she would be arrested if she “continue[d] to do this.” Government attorneys asserted in a court filing that he denied referencing a “domestic terrorism watchlist.” 根据法律文件，当天下午，J.C. 用手机给 Williams 打了电话，仅自称是“国土安全部”的人。据 Williams 称，他告诉她应该“劝告”其配偶 Pantos，“以后不要再做类似的事情，因为做这种事的人可能会被加入国内恐怖主义观察名单。”J.C. 在证词中表示，他曾警告 Williams，如果她“继续这样做”，她将被逮捕。政府律师在法庭文件中声称，他否认曾提及“国内恐怖主义观察名单”。
According to documents produced by the government, Williams’ ICM record says that she was the registered owner of a vehicle used to “interrupt ICE arrests” and that her driver’s license photo matched a video of “aggressive woman [who] interject[ed] herself into an arrest.” According to a 2016 DHS privacy assessment, ICM automatically shares the subject records agents create with CBP’s TECS system, where they act as “lookout records” for screening travelers at the border. 根据政府提供的文件，Williams 的 ICM 记录显示，她是用于“干扰 ICE 逮捕”车辆的注册车主，且她的驾照照片与一段“激进女性介入逮捕过程”的视频相符。根据 2016 年国土安全部的隐私评估，ICM 会自动将特工创建的主体记录与 CBP 的 TECS 系统共享，这些记录在边境筛查旅客时充当“预警记录”。
ICM is the system used by HSI agents to create and track case files. ICE awarded Palantir the contract to build ICM in 2014, and the system is built on the company’s Gotham software, which ICE says was customized specifically for operational needs. In 2022, ICE awarded Palantir a new five-year ICM support contract initially valued at up to about $96 million. In 2025, the agency added nearly $30 million to that contract to develop a new platform called “ImmigrationOS.” ICM 是 HSI 特工用于创建和跟踪案件档案的系统。ICE 于 2014 年将 ICM 的构建合同授予 Palantir，该系统基于该公司的 Gotham 软件构建，ICE 表示该软件是专门针对运营需求定制的。2022 年，ICE 向 Palantir 授予了一份新的五年期 ICM 支持合同，初始价值高达约 9600 万美元。2025 年，该机构又向该合同追加了近 3000 万美元，用于开发一个名为“ImmigrationOS”的新平台。
Todd Lyons, the former acting director of ICE, wrote in an April letter to Rep. Maxwell Frost, the Florida Democrat, that ICE “does not maintain any kind of database of U.S. citizens protesting ICE activities.” He also said DHS isn’t keeping a “separate, standalone database” of people it hasn’t arrested or detained. ICE 前代理局长 Todd Lyons 在 4 月致佛罗里达州民主党众议员 Maxwell Frost 的信中写道，ICE “不维护任何关于抗议 ICE 活动的美国公民的数据库”。他还表示，国土安全部没有保留一份针对未被逮捕或拘留人员的“独立的、单独的数据库”。
The government’s motion to dismiss argues that these were isolated incidents and that DHS policy prohibits this conduct. It says J.C. made records on people he believed were “potential threats to law enforcement” and “did not attempt to nominate any individuals to the terrorist watchlist.” 政府的驳回动议辩称，这些只是孤立事件，且国土安全部政策禁止此类行为。动议称，J.C. 只是为他认为“对执法部门构成潜在威胁”的人创建了记录，并且“并未试图将任何人提名至恐怖分子观察名单”。
Attorneys for the observers say that DHS’s efforts have had a chilling effect on their First Amendment rights. According to the motion, Pantos stopped all ICE observation work after J.C.’s phone call to Williams, who briefly continued to observe ICE activity and then stopped all together too. 观察员的律师表示，国土安全部的这些行为对他们的第一修正案权利产生了寒蝉效应。根据动议，在 J.C. 给 Williams 打电话后，Pantos 停止了所有 ICE 观察工作；Williams 在短暂继续观察 ICE 活动后，也彻底停止了相关工作。
The observers are asking the court to order that Williams’ records be archived, to bar DHS from using the information it collected about the plaintiffs against them, and to prohibit agents in Maine from threatening observers with watchlists or following them to their homes. 观察员们请求法院下令将 Williams 的记录归档，禁止国土安全部使用其收集的关于原告的信息来针对他们，并禁止缅因州的特工以观察名单威胁观察员或跟踪他们回家。