High-Tech Surveillance of Immigrants

A joint venture of several IT companies contracted in 2020 for five years of service to facilitate Homeland Security Investigation's usage of the Communications for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), which requires telecom companies to help law enforcement wiretap their networks.

Berla, in collaboration with MSAB, makes vehicle forensics kits that CBP uses to extract personal information from cars' infotainment and navigation systems. The system can extract contact lists, messages, pictures, and recent destinations from any synchronized mobile devices.

A biometrics company that has conducted DNA analysis and testing of immigrants since 2014. Since 2019, Bode has provided CBP and ICE with Rapid DNA testing services using Thermo Fisher's RapidHIT ID system.

Provides law enforcement agencies, including ICE since 2019, with a tool that indexes images from online sources and matches them with facial images in law enforcement databases.

Dataminr provides real-time alerts from social media and other public data sources to law enforcement, and this information is shared with DHS through its fusion centers.

One of the world's largest consulting firms, with multiple large contracts with ICE and CBP, including for optimizing their immigrant detention capabilities and for developing the Unified Immigration Portal (UIP), using Salesforce technology, to facilitate information sharing across DHS agencies.

Dev Technology is the main contractor for DHS' Enforcement Integrated Database (EID), which contains biometric and other information collected by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations agents and is shared with CBP, other federal agencies, and the government of Mexico. The company also has contracts with CBP for biometric application development.

Developed and operates COPLINK, a system used to facilitate information sharing between local law enforcement and federal agencies including ICE. Forensic Logic had a contract with ICE for access to law enforcement data from 2018 to 2020.

During 2014-2022, ICE used Giant Oak Search Technology (GOST), originally developed for the military, to mine social media content for the purpose of automatically assessing people's "threat level" and flag them for increased surveillance, arrest, or deportation.

Owned by private equity firm Peak Equity Partners, Grayshift provides its GrayKey system to ICE and CBP for extracting data from cell phones. In 2019, Grayshift partnered with Magnet Forensics to make GrayKey available to more law enforcement.

Owned by private equity firm Advent International, IDEMIA creates automated biometrics systems for governments around the world, including the US, since 2005.

Since 2014, JDL Digital Systems has provided support and equipment for the Video Evidence Collection and Distribution System (VECADS) used by ICE and CBP. The company develops standalone security cameras as well as video recording and time management equipment for aircraft, drones, and vehicles.

A Canadian software company that sells phone-hacking and data analysis software to US immigration authorities and other law enforcement agencies.

Noblis provides systems engineering and technical assistance to DHS, testing and evaluating new DHS technologies. The company has provided biometric support services to DHS in the past, and DHS plans to use Noblis facial recognition technology to target suspected members of gangs.

A US-based military and government contractor that has provided maintenance and logistical services to Custom and Border Protection’s fleet of aircraft used for surveilling the US–Mexico border. It was acquired by private company Amentum in 2022, bringing it into the private sector.

A communications data analysis company that mines data including phone usage, social media, and internet communications to track people in real time. These data, which Pen-Link has provided to ICE and CBP since at least 2008, is integrated into the Palantir-designed Investigative Case Management (ICM) system.

A forensics and biometrics company that, since 2019, consults DHS on optimizing its analysis of rapid DNA tests taken from immigrants at the US-Mexico border.

Since 2019, Venntel has provided ICE and CBP with its database of people's locations based on mining smartphone app data.