High tech companies earn millions thanks to Trump anti-immigrant program, report says American News

According to a new report, Silicon Valley technology companies, including Amazon, Palantir and Microsoft, are bringing millions of dollars back to the United States.

They provide tools for the surveillance, detention and deportation of people targeted by Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda, according to an article published Tuesday by a coalition of anti-immigrant groups. defending the rights of immigrants. The report describes the different ways in which Immigration and Customs Control (Ice) Services have expanded their reach, thanks to the infrastructure of technology companies that have been facing increasing internal and external pressure for cancel their contracts.

"During this period of continued escalation of abuses by Ice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), we have been frustrated, frightened and shocked by the level of secrecy surrounding the number of technology contracts awarded by contracts, "said Jacinta Gonzalez, an organizer with Mijente, one of the nonprofit groups behind the report. "These technologies are used in real time and many businesses benefit from them."

The report – produced by research firm Empower LLC and commissioned by Mijente, the national immigration project and the immigrant advocacy project – also explained how the technical lobby was pushing through the years to adopt storage policies. "cloud" data, paving the way for its contracts. services that now fuel ice operations.

Over the past year, technology companies have been increasingly criticized for the misuse of their platforms and products, whether it's speeding up Trump's deportation help the government recruit border guards or create new border surveillance systems.

Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary that sells cloud computing services, is facing a scrutiny of its contracts with governments, especially after its CEO, Jeff Bezos, the man on richer in the world, has positioned himself as a philanthropist and ethical leader on labor issues. .

AWS plays the role of "key contractor" for DHS 'migration of its $ 6.8 billion information technology portfolio to the cloud, the report says. Amazon has more federal permissions to manage government data between agencies than any other technology company. This includes support for DHS data storage for immigration case management systems and biometric data for more than 200 million identities. AWS stores cloud data for a system that "processes over 300,000 biometric transactions a day" and uses this information to "detect and prevent illegal entry" in the United States, according to DHS.

AWS has a justice and public safety program that also sells cloud services to law enforcement agencies that can share information with the DHS, the report says. The Bezos company was scrutinized earlier this year when public documents revealed that the company was marketing and selling facial recognition software to the police.

"Amazon Web Services is the backbone of many of these systems," said Gonzalez.

Palantir, a CIA-funded data mining company co-founded by Peter Thiel, Trump's ally, also plays an important role in the management and analysis of ice cases. Silicon Valley provides a management system for Homeland Security Investigations, a key criminal investigation division of Ice. Palantir also provides an analytical tool called Falcon Search and Analysis, which helps authorities analyze data and produce intelligence reports.

Palantir systems play an important role in sharing data with law enforcement agencies, connecting authorities and local and federal officials. Some of the Palantir systems also use AWS.

The fiscal year 2019 includes an ice technology modernization program worth $ 24.6 million, a $ 97.2 million "biometric match service" investment and an automated identification system of $ 11.9 million. AWS and Palantir are partners in these efforts.

Amazon and Microsoft were also part of a working group on cloud computing that has partnered with Congress and pushed for a new law reforming federal IT acquisitions and giving , according to the report, in Silicon Valley "an influence on the outsourcing of its own services".

DHS has also signed biometric information sharing agreements with the Mexican government, relying on a cloud-based application that maintains partnerships with AWS and Microsoft Azure, a cloud computing service. The relationship sparked internal reactions among Microsoft employees earlier this year, prompting Satya Nadella, its executive director, to try to downplay the importance of his company's relationship with Ice.

Microsoft also has a DHS contract that includes cloud migration services until 2020, the report says.

Microsoft declined to comment, providing a July statement saying its Ice deal was about e-mail, messaging, and "document management workloads," adding, "Even in this increasingly polarized policy period, we have confidence in our fundamental democratic institutions and values. "

Amazon and Palantir have not responded to requests for comment.

Gonzalez pointed out how unsubstantiated allegations of "gang membership" can lead to the expulsion of undocumented people – information that technology companies are helping to store and make available to authorities.

"It's their ability to strengthen law enforcement and formal procedures – they use technology for this purpose," said Gonzalez. "The workers of these companies [need] to see the consequences of what they do. "