ICE shared voter data with Peter Thiel’s Palantir, new documents show

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shared voter data with Palantir, the data analytics and software giant co-founded by the conservative political activist and avowed skeptic of democracy Peter Thiel, according to internal government documents reviewed by Democracy Docket.

As of this summer, Palantir was preparing to enter the voter data into an expansive and controversial surveillance tool the company developed for ICE’s immigration enforcement operations across the country, the documents reveal.

That offers further evidence that ICE — the immigration agency that President Donald Trump rapidly expanded during his second term — is now being employed in the president’s multifront attack on elections.

It’s unclear precisely where ICE obtained the voter records. However, the data involved voters in at least six states: Missouri, Michigan, New Mexico, Connecticut, Georgia and Kentucky.

It’s also uncertain how that information would be pertinent to ICE’s operations, as state voter data would contain very little information on noncitizens. But Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed — erroneously — that illegal voting by noncitizens is widespread as they attempt to influence state election procedures, push for stricter voting laws and undermine election results.

The nonprofit legal group Democracy Forward* obtained the government documents through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against ICE seeking any information about the agency’s role in election-related operations. The records are a series of reports Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — the immigration agency’s investigative arm — made for other parts of the Department of Homeland Security.

HSI shared the information with Palantir as part of DHS’s sweeping search for illegal voting by noncitizens before the upcoming midterms. 

Thiel has been a major funder of Republican causes, including Trump’s 2016 campaign. 

“I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible,” he once wrote, explaining his strategy for achieving his libertarian goals. 

In a July internal report, HSI indicated that data from those six states “are pending Palantir entry into ELITE,” the highly detailed map-based software the tech company built for ICE to identify, prioritize and locate people targeted for immigration enforcement.

Before Palantir received the voter data, the document noted that the information had been “enriched” by “iLab,” referring to HSI’s Innovation Lab. Generally, data enrichment refers to merging datasets to add missing context, depth or usability. The document did not indicate exactly what data iLab incorporated into the voter records.

Palantir built ELITE for ICE’s immigration enforcement operations, but the agency allegedly hasn’t used it exclusively for that. 

Court filings claim ICE has also stored dossiers on people who observe its enforcement operations in ELITE. The dossiers included people’s photos, license plate numbers and other personal information.

In response to those allegations, Palantir told Wired that while ELITE was built using its proprietary software and it hosts the tool, the company does not control or retain any of the data.

However, the new documents would suggest otherwise: In one, HSI indicated that it was waiting for the company to enter the voter data into ELITE.

Palantir’s direct handling of voter data raises privacy concerns, though it’s possible that much of the data was public information. But it’s difficult to say precisely, as the documents disclosed that ICE received tens of millions of voter records from multiple sources.

The documents indicate ICE received 50.6 million records from the Department of Justice (DOJ). Heather Honey, a longtime promoter of false election claims who is now a senior DHS official, received another 48.4 million records from “independent sources of information.”

ICE and Palantir did not immediately respond to Democracy Docket’s request for comment on whether the company directly handled the voter data or how it received the data.

Many states allow public access to their voter registration records, but heavily restrict access to their unredacted records, which may include people’s partial Social Security and driver’s license numbers.

Over the past year, the DOJ has tried to access all states’ unredacted voter records. While some states have complied, many others have refused and were in turn sued by the DOJ. So far, the department has suffered 26 straight court losses in these cases.

Of the six states involved in HSI’s transfer to Palantir, only Missouri had given the DOJ its unredacted voter rolls. All others involved refused and were sued by the department.

*Democracy Docket Founder Marc Elias is the chair of Democracy Forward’s board.