Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine sent a letter to the DHS inspector general, regarding what they called "a muddled patchwork of technology procurements that have significantly expanded DHS’ ability to collect, retain, and analyze information about Americans."
"We are deeply concerned that ICE’s surge in brutality against American communities is being facilitated by the inappropriate and unsupervised use of surveillance technology."
"DHS law enforcement agencies have moved to amass potentially sensitive personal data with the unprecedented $165 billion DHS was allocated during last year’s partisan reconciliation process. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) alone received $75 billion, more funding than that
allocated to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an agency responsible for investigating violations of a significantly greater number of laws."
"To date, DHS has:
1. Issued a Request for Information (RFI) to Big Data and Ad Tech providers to support ICE’s investigation activities;
2. Published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), Collection and Use of Biometrics by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, that would expand the types and amount of biometric data the agency can – including allowing collection of biometric data from children under 14;
3. Issued a RFI to hire 30 social media surveillance contractors to collect information from social media and commercial databases and build profiles on individuals for the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) division;
4. Issued a Notice of Intent for licenses from Bi2 Technologies - used for scanning individuals’ irises;
5. Entered a contract with Palantir to upgrade the Investigative Case Management (ICM) system – which has access to information from across the federal government – to include the Immigration Lifecycle Operating System (ImmigrationOS);
6. Reactivated a contract with Paragon Solutions under the FAR 6.302-1 rule, which is reserved for the most unique services."
