Protestors Want Palantir to Drop US Government Contract

October 24, 2018

The United States needs massive immigration reform. One of the arguments surrounding the US immigration controversy is if illegal immigrants are truly criminals and should be treated as such? Palo Alto Online shares how one tech company’s software is being used to for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “Protestors Demand Palantir End ICE Contract.”

Palantir Technologies is based in Palo Alto and its software powers a database on immigrants that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to enforce immigration law. Protestors met at the company’s headquarters in July with an attempt to deliver a protest letter to CEO Alex Karp. Those who were at protest include Tech Workers Coalition, Sacred Heart Community Service, Silicon Valley Rising, Santa Clara County Democratic Party, Working Partnerships USA, and SEIU United Service Workers West.

The protestors claim that Palantir enables ICE to abuse immigrants and refugees and the company should end its relationship with ICE on a morality stand. Palantir locked its office and did not send out a representative to collect the letter. Protestors also want Silicon Valley to stand up to the Trump administration and not be complicit with its actions. Palantir is not the only company with ICE contracts:

“According to a June 20 report by NBC News, Palantir accepted more than $4.9 million from ICE on May 30, which is part of a $39 million contract dating back to 2015 for operations and maintenance of Falcon, the company’s intelligence database, which tracks immigrants’ records and relationships, NBC found in a government database search.Other tech companies have also taken ICE contracts, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Thomson Reuters, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, according to the NBC report. The protesters said that employees at some of the other firms have asked their companies to turn down ICE contracts.”

With an alleged Palantir IPO approaching, dumping contracts does not seem to be a workable idea.

Whitney Grace, October 24, 2018

—

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Government, News

Comments

Comments are closed.

Search the site
Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive

Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.