According to contract documents published last week, the blanket purchase agreement (BPA) provided “for Palantir to provide commercial software licensing, maintenance and implementation services to the department comprehensively.” The agreement simplifies how DHS purchases software from Palantir, allowing DHS agencies like Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to essentially skip the competitive bidding process for new purchases of up to $1 billion in products and services from the company.
Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Palantir announced the settlement internally on Friday. It comes as the company struggles to resolve rising tensions among employees over its relationship with DHS and ICE. After Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretty was shot to death in January, Palantir employees flooded company Slack channels seeking information on how the technology they created empowers US immigration enforcement. Since then, the company has updated its internal wiki, introducing some unproven details about its work with ICE, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp recorded a video for employees where he attempted to justify the company’s immigration work, as WIRED reported last week. During a nearly hour-long conversation with Courtney Bowman, Palantir’s global director of privacy and civil liberties engineering, Karp failed to directly answer questions about how the company’s technological prowess affects ICE. Instead, he said employees can sign nondisclosure agreements for more detailed information.
Akash Jain, Palantir’s chief technology officer and president of Palantir US Government Partners, which works with US government agencies, acknowledged these concerns in an email announcing the company’s new agreement with DHS. “I recognize that this is a time of increased concern, both externally and internally, regarding our ongoing work with ICE,” Jain wrote. “Although we don’t typically send out updates on new contract vehicles, we felt it was especially important in this moment to provide context to help you understand what this means – and what it doesn’t. There will be opportunities we pursue, and others we turn down – this discipline is part of what has earned us the trust of DHS.”
In Friday’s email, Jain suggested that the five-year agreement could allow the company to expand its reach to agencies at DHS such as the US Secret Service (USS), the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Jain also argued that Palantir’s software could strengthen protections for American citizens. “These protections help enable accountability through tighter controls and auditing capabilities, and support adherence to constitutional protections, particularly the Fourth Amendment,” Jain wrote. (Critics of Palantir have argued that the company’s tools create a vast surveillance network, which could ultimately harm civil liberties.)
Over the past year, Palantir’s work with ICE has grown significantly. Last April, WIRED reported that ICE paid Palantir $30 million to create “ImmigrationOS,” which would provide “near real-time visibility” on immigrants self-deporting from the US. Since then, it has been reported that the company has also developed a new tool called Enhanced Leads Identification and Targeting for Enforcement (ELITE), which draws maps of potential deportation targets by pulling data from DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Concluding his Friday email to employees, Jain suggested that employees curious about the new DHS agreement work on it themselves. Jain wrote to staff, “As a Palantir, the best way to understand the work is to engage directly with the work. If you are interested in helping shape and deliver the next chapter of Palantir’s work at DHS, please reach out.” lord of the rings. “Translating this momentum into mission results will require a tremendous amount of committed Hobbits.”
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