Palantir Ran a Hack Week to Build Oversight Tools for Its ICE and DHS Software

Palantir held a company-wide hack week this spring focused on building new user-auditing and oversight tools for its software used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to internal materials reviewed by WIRED.

The new tools give organizations — including DHS and ICE — greater visibility into how their employees use Palantir software. Features include alerts for “concerning behavior” such as exfiltrating datasets, the ability to search individual users’ session logs, and tracking which users have viewed specific sets of information. Some tools have already been deployed, with others expected to roll out later in 2026, according to an internal email reviewed by WIRED.

The hack week centered on Palantir’s Foundry platform, its data integration and analysis tool. One team lead wrote that the new capabilities “materially expand the usability of Audit logs and checkpoints — not just on [Palantir’s DHS contract], but anywhere Foundry operates in high-sensitivity environments.”

The event was driven, at least in part, by internal pressure. Palantir employees have raised concerns about the company’s expanding work with ICE, particularly following the shooting death of Minneapolis nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents earlier this year. Internal Slack messages reviewed by WIRED showed workers questioning the ethics of the work and asking whether Palantir could exert any influence over ICE’s actions.

Palantir’s ICE contracts have grown significantly over the past year. WIRED previously reported that ICE paid the company $30 million to build a product called “ImmigrationOS,” designed to provide near real-time visibility on self-deportations. A separate tool, called ELITE (Enhanced Leads Identification & Targeting for Enforcement), reportedly creates maps of individuals targeted for deportation.

Ted Mabrey, head of Palantir’s commercial business, framed the hack week as a constructive response to internal criticism in an early May email to staff. “You have the option to slam cynical emojis in slack channels,” he wrote, “or you can have the courage to engage and innovate.” Palantir declined to comment to WIRED.