Big data company Palantir renews its controversial contract with ICE that is worth nearly $50 million

Francois Mori/AP

• Big data company Palantir has renewed its controversial contract with ICE, government filings show.
• The contract has been renewed for the next three years and is worth nearly $50 million, according to redacted text.
• Palantir will provide and maintain software that allows ICE agents to screen immigrants at the border.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The big data company Palantir has renewed its contract with ICE, according to government filings on Monday.

This contract allows Palantir to provide Investigative Case Management System (ICM) software for ICE. ICM is a system used by ICE officers at the border to screen immigrants and determine if they can be admitted. 

The original contract was first awarded to Palantir on Sept. 10, 2014, and it was set to expire on Sept. 25 this year. Now, it has been renewed for the next three years.

The total contract amount and amount per year were redacted, but the selected text shows that it’s worth $49,874,018.14 in total. According to the filing, the government will pay $16,210,849.40 for the first year, $14,739,218.50 for the second year, and $14,842,138.91 for the third year, with room for additional enhancements the second and third year. 

Palantir did not respond to a request for comment.

ICE’s system was built using Palantir’s commercial Gotham software, which is used for managing, securing, and analyzing data. According to this contract, Palantir will also provide testing, data management, security services, software updates, and more to ICE.

Rosalie Chan

Activist groups like the Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps Bay Area have been protesting at Palantir’s Palo Alto offices to demand that it drop its contract when it expires. This group is planning an emergency action at Palantir’s offices on Friday to protest the renewal of the contract.

Activists have also been protesting Amazon Web Services, as Palantir’s software is built on Amazon’s cloud. Within Amazon, employees circulated a letter asking the company to stop working with Palantir and take a stand against ICE. AWS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more: Protesters blocked Palantir’s cafeteria to pressure the $20 billion big data company to drop its contracts with ICE

Palantir has been valued at $20 billion by private investors and is rumored to be preparing to sell shares to the public in an IPO sometime in 2020.

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• Protesters blocked Palantir’s cafeteria to pressure the $20 billion big data company to drop its contracts with ICE

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Source: Business Insider – rmchan@businessinsider.com (Rosalie Chan)