President Trump’s attacks on immigrants have left my community in fear and silence. Fear and silence are the goals of any authoritarian government, and ICE has delivered, not only by tearing families apart and raiding neighborhoods across the country, but by surveilling the rest of us. The people behind these surveillance systems are giving money to our Democrat representatives, who have no problem taking it.
So, how does ICE surveil us? The answer lies in ICE’s use of Palantir Technologies, a data analytics company that got its start identifying targets in America’s “War on Terror.” Since then, Palantir has grown its government contracts that place the American public in the crosshairs of its invasive surveillance techniques, and the company has played a critical role in President Trump’s attacks on immigrants.
Palantir’s Enhanced Leads Identification and Targeting for Enforcement system, or “ELITE,” is used by ICE officers for identifying and locating targets for deportation. This system operates on sensitive data from the Department of Health and Human Services and from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, allowing ICE insight into information for which it would normally (and constitutionally) require a warrant.
Palantir is culpable for the fear and silence that now permeates through communities in New York and nationwide, and yet, many of the same representatives who say they want to protect us from ICE are linked to the company. When we allow Palantir into our government, we diminish our constitutional rights of privacy and of free speech. As constituents, we must stand against Palantir and demand that our representatives reject Palantir’s dirty money.
It’s no secret that money often supplants the will of the people in American politics. Lobbying in Washington is a multi-billion-dollar industry, but we cannot allow its ubiquity to become a free pass for elected officials to take money from whoever will offer it. It is imperative that constituents draw a line, that we demand our representatives not take money from corporations that profit off violence, mass surveillance, and a disregard for our rights.
Despite the fact that Palantir is a uniquely harmful company and antithetical to Democrats’ platform, New York Democrats, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Josh Riley, have taken tens of thousands of dollars from the company.
Rep. Jeffries, whose district is among the most diverse in the country, has referred to ICE as Trump’s “violent mass deportation machine.” Yet he has received $25,000 in Palantir donations and, according to Politico, his victory fund received another $44,000 from a Palantir manager. Rep. Josh Riley has received over $76,000 from Palantir.
As long as elected officials like Jeffries and Riley continue to accept money from billionaires and surveillance corporations, the actual needs of the people will continue to be eschewed. The millions that Palantir has spent lobbying our representatives seems to have paid off for them: Since just the beginning of 2024, Palantir has received 162 federal contracts totaling more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer money that could have gone toward improving their lives. Palantir — which, in 2025, paid exactly $0 in federal income tax despite enjoying $1.5 billion in income — is not a taxpayer.
It’s time we call for Jeffries and his Democratic colleagues to put their money where their mouth is and reject any future donations from Palantir, money that is deeply entangled with ICE’s oppressive surveillance of immigrants. Jeffries would not be the first to do so. A handful of U.S. representatives, including New York’s Rep. Pat Ryan, have made the pledge to put their constituents over donors by refusing any future Palantir-linked donations and donating past contributions to immigrant aid groups.
You can help not only by calling your representative and telling them to reject dirty money, but also by taking the solidarity pledge to stand with your neighbors against authoritarianism and surveillance. As a leader for the Solidarity Organizing Initiative, I have worked with my peers in the New York theater scene — an industry that thrives thanks to immigrants and their stories — to organize against constitutional threats. It has strengthened and prepared my community to stand up for our civil rights, and it can strengthen your community too.
Rep. Jeffries and every member of Congress face a choice: Continue investing in surveillance that harms our most vulnerable communities, or invest in the people they were elected to serve. It’s time our elected officials prioritize the community that elected them over corporate profits. The choice is clear. Our communities are watching.
Amalia Oliva Rojas is a New York activist, award-winning playwright, and poet.
