ICE Offers Up to $280 Million to Immigrant-Tracking ‘Bounty Hunter’ Firms
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expanding plans to outsource immigrant tracking to private surveillance companies, abandoning a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of an uncapped program with multimillion-dollar guarantees, according to new contract records reviewed by WIRED.
Late last month, the Intercept reported that ICE intended to hire bounty hunters and private investigators for street-level vetting work. Contractors would confirm the home and work addresses of those targeted for eviction by, among other techniques, photographing residences, documenting comings and goings, and staking out workplaces and apartment complexes.
These documents present the initiative as a substantial but limited pilot program. Contractors were guaranteed only $250 and could only earn $90 million each, with the overall program capped at $180 million. This structure indicated significant scale, but nonetheless viewed the effort as a controlled trial, not an integral part of ICE’s withdrawal operations.
The recently released changes dismantle this structure. ICE removed the program’s spending cap and replaced it with significantly higher per-vendor limits. Entrepreneurs can now earn up to $281.25 million individually and are guaranteed an initial order worth at least $7.5 million. This change signals to ICE’s contract basis that this is no longer an experiment, but an investment, and that the agency expects prime contractors to provide the personnel, technology, and field operations necessary to function as a de facto arm of federal enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The proposed scope was already broad. It describes contractors receiving recurring monthly batches of 50,000 cases drawn from a file of 1.5 million people. Private investigators would confirm individuals’ locations not only through commercial data brokers and open source searches, but also through in-person visits when necessary. The filings outline a performance-based structure with bonus-style incentives: Companies will receive a fixed price per case, plus bonuses for speed and accuracy, with providers expected to offer their own incentive rates.
The contract also authorizes the Department of Justice and other components of DHS to issue their own orders under the program.
Previous documents suggested that private investigators could have access to ICE’s internal case management systems, which are databases containing photos, biographical details, immigration histories and other enforcement notes. The amended documents reverse that, stating that contractors will not be allowed to penetrate agency systems under any circumstances. Instead, DHS will send contractors exported files containing a range of personal data about each target. This change limits direct exposure to federal systems, but still places large volumes of sensitive information in the hands of private surveillance companies operating outside of public oversight.
