A powerful Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database, parts of which have been seen by 404 Media, allows the federal government to search for and filter people by hundreds of different, highly specific categories. Surveillance experts say the database is a tool that could possibly be helping ICE identify, detain, and deport people who are suspected of relatively minor infractions or who fit certain characteristics, but said the fact that we don’t necessarily know the exact mechanisms by which people are being identified and detained is a major problem. 

The database, called “Investigative Case Management” (ICM), “serves as the core law enforcement case management tool for ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI),” according to a 2021 privacy impact assessment for the tool. 

404 Media saw a recent version of the database, which allows filtering according to hundreds of different categories, which include things like resident status and entry status (“refugee,” “border crossing card,” “nonimmigrant alien refused admission,” “temporary protective status alien,” “nonimmigrant alien transiting without visa,” “undocumented alien,”); “unique physical characteristics (e.g. scars, marks, tattoos)”; “criminal affiliation”; location data; license plate reader data; country of origin; hair and eye color; race; social security number; birthplace; place of employment; driver’s license status; bankruptcy filings, and hundreds more. A source familiar with the database told 404 Media that it is made up of “tables upon tables” of data and that it can build reports that show, for example, people who are on a specific type of visa who came into the country at a specific port of entry, who came from a specific country, and who have a specific hair color (or any number of hundreds of data points). 

ICM was created by Palantir, the powerful and controversial surveillance and data management company. In 2022, Palantir signed a $95.9 million, five-year contract to work on ICM.  

ICE agents can set up a “Person Lookout Query” that sends email notifications if a person suddenly triggers the parameters of a search query. 404 Media has seen parts of the infrastructure of this database, which shows the characteristics that can be searched for, as well as several example reports that can be generated by it. 

A 2016 privacy impact assessment filed by DHS about the database says that ICM connects to other DHS and federal databases, including SEVIS, which are records about all people who are admitted to the United States on a student visa; another search tool called FALCON; “real-time maps” associated with ICE’s location tracking tools; “limited location data from license plate reader cameras operated by ICE,” as well as information from “other federal agencies.” The Intercept previously reported those agencies include the DEA, the FBI, the ATF, and the CIA.