Court filing says ICE agent logged Maine protesters in Palantir-built database

Left · 2A redacted court filing made public on Friday 2 October alleges that Department of Homeland Security agents tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine and stored information about them in a Palantir-built database. 1 2 Left · 1The 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 concerns "Operation Catch of the Day," an immigration enforcement surge in Maine in January, and was filed under seal in September. 1 Left · 1The plaintiffs say it is based heavily on government-produced documents and depositions of DHS agents. It focuses on an agent identified as "Agent J.C.", who used the Investigative Case Management (ICM) database, the system Homeland Security Investigations uses to document investigations. According to the filing, J.C. created ICM records on at least six observers; the government puts the number at eight. 1

Left · 1The filing says J.C. labelled two people he filmed in a Home Depot parking lot "Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor" and sent photos of them and others to a Customs and Border Protection officer for a facial recognition search using an app called Mobile Query. 1 Left · 1On 20 January Pantos briefly watched and photographed an arrest in Portland. Hours later, the filing says, J.C. ran the car's plate, pulled a LexisNexis Accurint report on its owner, Williams, and told colleagues he was "adding them in ICM now." That afternoon he phoned Williams. She says he told her Pantos should not do that again because people doing so "might get added to a domestic terrorism watchlist." 1 Left · 1J.C. testified that he warned Williams she would be arrested if she continued. Government attorneys say he denied referencing a watchlist. 1

Left · 1The filing also alleges drive-bys of observers' homes and that at least one observer must be referred to secondary inspection whenever she crosses the border until at least January 2027. A 2016 DHS privacy assessment says ICM automatically shares subject records with CBP's TECS system, where they act as lookout records for border screening. 1 Left · 1ICE awarded Palantir the contract to build ICM in 2014, and the system runs on Palantir's Gotham software. A 2022 five-year support contract was initially valued at up to about $96 million, and nearly $30 million was added in 2025 to develop "ImmigrationOS." Palantir did not immediately respond to Wired's request for comment. 1 Left · 1A DHS spokesperson called the case "meritless" and said it rests on "the lie that there is a database of 'domestic terrorists' run by DHS." The government's motion to dismiss argues these were isolated incidents that DHS policy prohibits, and that J.C. recorded people he believed were potential threats to law enforcement and did not try to nominate anyone to a terrorist watchlist. 1

Left · 1In an April letter to Rep. Maxwell Frost, then-acting ICE director Todd Lyons wrote that ICE "does not maintain any kind of database of U.S. citizens protesting ICE activities." 1 Left · 1Protect Democracy attorney JoAnna Suriani, who represents the observers, says the government is treating people who exercise First Amendment rights as criminal suspects. According to the motion, Pantos stopped observing ICE after the call, and Williams stopped soon after. The observers ask the court to order Williams' records archived, bar DHS from using the collected information against them, and prohibit agents in Maine from threatening observers with watchlists or following them home. 1