How ICE Uses Companies to Target People Based on Race: Understanding $85 Billion in Racial Profiling Contracts

Introduction

What This Article Is About

In July 2025, Congress passed a law called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

This law gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) $75 billion in new money—more than $85 billion when you include funding across multiple years.

ICE now has more money than any other law enforcement agency in America. But here is the problem: this money is being used to build machines that specifically target people based on their race.

FAF article explains how ICE uses companies to do racial profiling, and why this is dangerous for everyone.

The Supreme Court Gave ICE Permission to Discriminate

Before September 2025, federal judges were stopping ICE from using race to arrest immigrants.

In July 2025, Judge Margaret Frimpong ruled that ICE was breaking the law by arresting people just because of their skin color, accent, or job. She said ICE agents could not arrest someone just because they "look" Latino.

But in September 2025, the Supreme Court overturned Judge Frimpong's ruling.

The Supreme Court said ICE CAN arrest people based on race.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that this decision means "all Latinos...who work low wage jobs are fair game to be seized at any time."

This was a shocking decision. It made racial discrimination legal.

Then, 1 month later, ICE started buying contracts with companies to do exactly this: use racial discrimination to arrest immigrants.

How ICE Uses Companies to Target People

When the Supreme Court gave ICE permission to use racial discrimination, ICE started looking for companies to help them find immigrants.

They created something called "skip tracing."

Skip tracing means: using computers and people to find out where someone lives and works.

ICE gives these companies a list of 50,000 names every month. The companies use all kinds of data—government records, health records, social media, property records—to figure out where these people live.

In December 2025, ICE gave contracts to at least 10 companies.

One company is Capgemini. Capgemini got a contract worth $365.8 million.

Another company is Palantir.

Palantir got $30 million to build an AI system that finds immigrants.

Why Is This Racial Profiling?

The problem is that ICE is not using these companies to find dangerous criminals. ICE is using them to find immigrants—and the companies know that 90% of the people they are tracking will be Latino.

Here is an example: A man named Pedro works in construction. He has lived in America for 15 years. He has no criminal record. But ICE wants to deport him.

ICE gives Capgemini or Palantir a list with Pedro's name on it. The company uses computers to find out that Pedro lives at 123 Maple Street. They might even send someone to take a photo of his house. Then they send ICE the information. ICE arrests Pedro.

But why was Pedro on the list in the first place? Not because he committed a crime. He is on the list because he is Latino and works construction.

Palantir and the Stolen Health Information

The most shocking part is that one company called Palantir is using Americans' health information to track immigrants.

Here is how it works: Maria is an immigrant woman who is pregnant. She goes to a clinic and asks for Medicaid help to pay for her pregnancy care.

To get Medicaid, she gives her address to the government. She thinks this information is secret and safe.

But Palantir has a computer system that combines health records with immigration records, police records, and other information. Palantir built this system for ICE.

So now ICE knows where Maria lives—because of her pregnancy care records.

When Maria's baby is born, ICE might come to her house and arrest her. They found her because of her health information.

This is shocking because when people go to doctors and health clinics, they should be safe.

Your health information is supposed to be private. But now, if you are an immigrant, your health information helps the government find you for deportation.

Why Are Companies Doing This?

The companies are doing this because ICE pays them money.

Capgemini makes $4.8 million (so far) for finding immigrants. Palantir makes tens of millions of dollars. These companies profit when they help ICE find more people.

There is also a "bounty system."

This means: if a company finds an immigrant successfully, they get a bonus.

The more people they find, the more money they make. This creates an incentive to find as many people as possible—regardless of whether those people should actually be deported.

Imagine if police offered to pay private companies money every time they arrested someone.

Would those companies work hard to arrest innocent people?

Yes, they would. That is what is happening with ICE.

Detention Centers Are Being Built

The companies are finding immigrants. ICE is arresting them. But where do all these people go?

Congress gave ICE $45 billion to build new detention centers. This will create about 100,000 new prison beds—just for immigrants. The total number of detained immigrants could reach 165,000 people.

Some of these detention centers are being built by companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic.

These companies get paid money for every person detained. So these companies also profit when more immigrants are arrested.

It is like a system where every part makes money when more people are detained:

(1) Skip tracing companies make money for finding people ($1-$7.5 million per contract)

(2) Detention facility companies make money for holding people

(3) ICE makes money from Congress ($75 billion) that it has to spend

(4) Immigration judges face being fired if they say "no" to deportations

Everyone in the system profits from arrests.

What About People's Rights?

ICE is using these companies to target people based on race. But America's Constitution says people have the right not to be arrested based on race. This is called "equal protection."

Between January and July 2025, before all this got really bad, ICE arrested 16,000 immigrants with NO criminal record. 90% were Latino. This means ICE arrested people just for being Latino.

Some people arrested were U.S. citizens. Andrea Velez was a U.S. citizen. ICE arrested her and held her for 2 days without water. She was not deported only because someone realized she was a citizen.

But how many people are NOT citizens, and are detained because of racial profiling?

We do not know. But the number is likely thousands.

International Response

By January 2026, companies around the world started refusing to help ICE.

The French government pressured Capgemini to stop the contract. French unions said the contract was wrong. The government of British Columbia in Canada told Canadian companies not to help ICE.

By February 1, 2026, Capgemini announced it was selling the company that had the ICE contract.

But the problem is not solved. Palantir is still building the AI system. GEO Group and CoreCivic are still building detention centers. And ICE still has $75 billion to spend.

Why This Matters for Everyone

This is not just a problem for immigrants. It is a problem for everyone.

Here is why: If the government can use private companies to do racial profiling against immigrants, what stops them from doing racial profiling against other groups? Black Americans? Muslims? Political opponents?

Once you build a system that uses race for arrests, that system can be expanded. Once you normalize racial profiling, it becomes easier to do.

Conclusion

The Danger

In 2025-2026, the U.S. government is building a system that:

(1) Pays companies to find immigrants based on race

(2) Uses stolen health information to track people

(3) Creates detention centers to hold 165,000 people

(4) Gives ICE $75 billion to make arrests

(4) Blocks immigration judges from saying "no" to deportations

(5) Uses algorithms that are biased against communities of color

This is not accidental. It is on purpose. ICE and Congress designed a system to maximize arrests regardless of whether people actually broke the law or whether their rights are violated.

This violates the Constitution. It violates human rights. And it sets a dangerous precedent for what governments can do to their own people when they have enough money, companies willing to help, and courts that will not stop them.