https://werd.io/elite-the-palantir-app-ice-uses-to-find-neighborhoods-to-raid/

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'ELITE': The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid

"Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404
Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological
infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency's
activities on the ground."

Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

15 Jan 2026 -- 2 min read

[Joseph Cox at 404 Media]

This is racial profiling on a grand scale:

    "Palantir is working on a tool for Immigration and Customs
    Enforcement (ICE) that populates a map with potential deportation
    targets, brings up a dossier on each person, and provides a
    "confidence score" on the person's current address, 404 Media has
    learned. ICE is using it to find locations where lots of people
    it might detain could be based."

It apparently looks a lot like Google Maps, but designed to show the
richness of an area for "targets", populated in part by density of
immigrants. And then you can dig in:

    "Once a person is selected on the map interface, ELITE then shows
    a dossier on that particular person, according to the user guide.
    That includes their name, a photo, their Alien Number (the unique
    code given by the U.S. government to each immigrant), their date
    of birth, and their full address."

The Nazis could only dream of having such a capability.

Imagine working for this company, on this product. Every day, you go
into work, in what I assume is a beautiful office with pine furniture
and a well-stocked kitchen, and you build software that will help to
deport people using what you know are extrajudicial means without due
process. You probably have OKRs. There are customer calls with ICE.
Every two-week sprint, you take on tasks that help make this engine
better.

What do you tell yourself? What do you tell your family?

Are you on board with this agenda, or do you tell yourself you need
the job to pay rent? To get healthcare?

You receive stock as part of your pay package. It's going up! You can
use it to buy a home, or to build a comfortable retirement, or some
combination of the two.

Your co-workers are values aligned and work hard. They're talented
and smart. Man, you might think to yourself, I love working with this
team.

Or, you might think, man, I've got to find another job.

Either way, you're proud of your product work. You're happy to take
the salary, the free lunches, the espresso. And regardless of how you
feel about it, the thing you do every day is powering an armed force
that is kidnapping people on the street and shooting civilians, that
shot a mother in the face, that is targeting people to disappear
using a beautiful, modern map interface.

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