Palantir Develops New Audit Tools for DHS and ICE Software

Palantir held a hack week this spring to develop new user-auditing tools for its software platforms. The effort focused on products used by the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The new features allow organizations to set alerts for concerning behavior, search individual user session logs, and see which users viewed specific data sets.

Some of the tools created during the hack week have already been deployed, while others are scheduled to roll out later this year. A team lead wrote that the tools materially expand the usability of audit logs and checkpoints. The same statement said the features apply not only to Palantir's DHS contract but anywhere Foundry operates in high-sensitivity environments.

Palantir's work with ICE has grown over the last year. Last year, the company received $30 million from ICE to build a product called ImmigrationOS that provides near real-time visibility on self-deportations. The company also built a separate tool called Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement that creates maps of individuals targeted for deportation.

In February, DHS reached a $1 billion purchasing agreement with Palantir. The agreement makes it easier for the agency and its sub-agencies to acquire the company's products. On May 6, Palantir announced it had received its first full task order under that agreement, extending the ImmigrationOS pilot program into an official product through the spring of 2027.

According to public contracting records, DHS paid Palantir $86 million for this extension. The payment also covers modernization and operational capability of ICE's case management software.

Palantir regularly holds hack weeks to encourage engineers to experiment with and solve problems in its products. This year's event focused on building oversight tools after internal Slack chats showed employees questioning the ethics of the company's ICE work.

One worker asked whether Palantir could put any pressure on ICE after reading stories of people rounded up while seeking asylum. Ted Mabrey, head of Palantir's commercial business, wrote in an early May email that the effort embodies the culture of the Palantir that he chooses to work at.

He said employees have the option to distrust colleagues or to engage and innovate. A team lead wrote that the hack week demonstrated Palantir can convert internal attention around work on the DHS contract into additional platform-level safeguards.