DHS Accused of Storing Protester Data in Palantir Database

By David Okafor

Newly unsealed federal court filings allege that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, through ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), compiled and stored data on individuals observing ICE enforcement activities in Maine. This information was reportedly entered into the Investigative Case Management (ICM) system, a database developed by Palantir Technologies.

The filings detail that an ICE agent, identified as “J.C.,” created records on at least six observers, potentially up to eight, labeling some as “Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor.” These records were shared with a CBP officer who conducted facial-recognition searches using the Mobile Query app.

On January 20, 2026, observer Polyxenia Pantos photographed an ICE arrest in Portland, Maine. Subsequently, J.C. used LexisNexis’s Accurint database to gather personal information about Carlyn Williams, another observer, and circulated her photo among colleagues. Williams was later warned by J.C. about potential inclusion on a domestic terrorism watchlist, a claim government attorneys dispute.

The ICM system, built on Palantir’s Gotham platform, was initially contracted in 2014, with a 2022 support contract valued at up to $96 million, and an additional $30 million in 2025 for a new platform, ImmigrationOS. DHS maintains that the lawsuit is meritless and denies the existence of a domestic terrorism database.

Plaintiffs, represented by Protect Democracy, are seeking court orders to delete their records and prevent DHS from using the data against them, as well as to stop agents from threatening or surveilling observers.