Federal immigration officers appear to be using a high‑tech mapping tool developed with data from Palantir to identify deportation targets across US. The tool is known as the ‘Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement’, or simply ‘ELITE’. According to a report cited by 404 Media, the app creates digital maps that show potential deportees with all their details. The maps include names, photos, dates of birth, and US government Alien Registration Numbers, along with an “address confidence score” indicating how certain the system is that individuals reside at a given address.The ELITE tool draws on information from multiple government sources, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
What are the factors that ELITE tracks?
For convenience, ICE agents can filter targets by factors according to the user guide:
- Bios & IDs
- Criminality
- Location
- Operations
and can select individuals or multiple people at once by drawing a shape on the map.Federal court testimony from an ICE officer confirms that ELITE has been used in real enforcement actions, carrying out multiple arrests. The tool has been described by one agent as “basically a map of the United States” similar to common consumer mapping apps. Once a person is selected on the interface, ELITE brings up a dossier on that individual.
Palantir contract worth $30 million
Internal documents show the ELITE name appears in a supplemental agreement with Palantir worth nearly $30 million, which began in September 2025 and is expected to continue for at least a year. Palantir previously worked with ICE on related projects and contracts, including ImmigrationOS, an artificial intelligence platform to assist deportation efforts.The revelation stirred a row about the use of surveillance tools in immigration enforcement. Advocates and civil liberties lawyers say the system could enable real-time targeting of individuals in communities, raising questions about privacy, profiling, and due process. The technology could be used to focus on densely populated areas with many immigrants without sufficient safeguards for civil rights, resulting in innocent people getting caught in the crossfire.
