Artificial Intelligence

ICE Stored Protester Photos in Palantir Database

Newly unsealed court filings allege that US immigration agents created records on people observing enforcement activity in Maine. The records reportedly included photographs, license plate data and other personal information.

Radwan AbdulhadiEditor and technology writer

Published: October 3, 2026 · Updated: October 3, 2026 · 5 min read

ICE Stored Protester Photos in Palantir Database — Image: WIRED

Court filing describes observer dossiers

A newly partially unsealed court filing alleges that agents of the US Department of Homeland Security built dossiers on people observing Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Maine. The records allegedly contained photographs, license plate numbers and other personal information, and were stored in the Investigative Case Management database, a system built by Palantir.

The filing is part of a proposed class action in federal court in Maine brought by four observers: Elinor Hilton, Colleen Fagan, Polyxenia Pantos and Carlyn Williams. It relies heavily on government-produced documents and depositions of DHS agents, and describes alleged efforts to intimidate people who watched or recorded immigration arrests.

Records allegedly followed observers

The case focuses on agent conduct during Operation Catch of the Day, an immigration enforcement surge in Maine in January. According to the filing, one DHS agent identified as “Agent J.C.” created ICM records on at least six observers, while the government says the number was eight.

The agent allegedly labeled two people filmed in a Home Depot parking lot as “Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor.” The filing says J.C. sent photographs of them and other observers to a US Customs and Border Protection officer, who could use an app called Mobile Query to conduct a facial-recognition search.

In another incident, Polyxenia Pantos briefly watched and photographed an arrest in Portland, Maine, while standing several car lengths away beside a vehicle belonging to their spouse, Williams. The filing says J.C. later ran the vehicle’s license plate and obtained a report on Williams from Accurint, a LexisNexis law-enforcement database. The report listed an address, phone numbers and cohabitants.

Phone call raised watchlist allegation

According to the filing, J.C. circulated Williams’ photograph to colleagues and asked whether she was the protester. After another agent said the image did not match the woman involved at the scene, J.C. said he was “adding them in ICM now.”

That afternoon, the agent allegedly called Williams on her mobile phone and identified himself only as “the Department of Homeland Security.” Williams said he told her to encourage Pantos not to repeat the activity because people who did so might be added to a domestic terrorism watchlist. J.C. testified that he warned Williams she could be arrested if she continued, while government attorneys said in a court filing that he denied mentioning such a watchlist.

Government-produced documents reportedly describe Williams as the registered owner of a vehicle used to “interrupt ICE arrests.” Her ICM record also allegedly said that her driver’s-license photograph matched a video of an “aggressive woman” who intervened in an arrest.

ICM records can support border screening

The filing points to a 2016 DHS privacy assessment stating that ICM automatically shares subject records created by agents with the agency’s TECS system. Those records can function as “lookout records” used to screen travelers at the border, according to the assessment.

The filing also alleges that at least one observer was referred to secondary inspection whenever she attempted to cross the border, with that treatment continuing until at least January 2027. The observers’ attorneys say the alleged conduct has chilled their First Amendment rights. Pantos stopped observing ICE activity after the call to Williams, while Williams continued briefly before stopping as well.

Palantir built the case-management system

ICM is used by agents in Homeland Security Investigations, the ICE component responsible for documenting and tracking investigations. ICE awarded Palantir a contract to build the system in 2014, and the database runs on the company’s Gotham software, which ICE says was customized for its operational needs.

In 2022, ICE awarded Palantir a new five-year ICM support contract initially valued at up to about $96 million. In 2025, the agency added nearly $30 million to develop a new platform called ImmigrationOS. Palantir did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DHS disputes broader database claim

A DHS spokesperson called the case “meritless” and said the lawsuit is based on what the agency described as a lie: that DHS operates a database of “domestic terrorists.” Todd Lyons, ICE’s former acting director, wrote in an April letter to Representative Maxwell Frost that ICE does not maintain a database of US citizens protesting ICE activities and that DHS does not keep a separate, standalone database of people it has not arrested or detained.

The government’s motion to dismiss argues that the incidents were isolated and that DHS policy prohibits the alleged conduct. It says J.C. created records for people he believed were potential threats to law enforcement and did not try to nominate anyone for a terrorist watchlist.

The observers are asking the court to archive Williams’ records, prevent DHS from using information collected about the plaintiffs against them, and prohibit Maine agents from threatening observers with watchlists or following them to their homes. Protect Democracy attorney JoAnna Suriani said the government was treating people exercising their First Amendment rights as criminal suspects and that the lawsuit seeks to stop that conduct.