According to Wired, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is massively expanding its plans to outsource immigrant tracking to private surveillance firms, scrapping a recent $180 million pilot proposal in favor of a no-cap program with multimillion-dollar guarantees. The agency removed the program’s spending cap entirely and replaced it with dramatically higher per-vendor limits where contractors can now earn up to $281.25 million individually. Each contractor is guaranteed an initial task order worth at least $7.5 million, a huge jump from the previous structure where firms could earn as little as $250 per case with maximums capped at $90 million each. The program involves contractors receiving monthly batches of 50,000 cases from a docket of 1.5 million people, with private investigators confirming locations through commercial data brokers, open-source research, and in-person surveillance. Contractors will operate outside ICE’s internal systems but receive exported case packets containing extensive personal data on each target.
From pilot to permanent
This shift from capped pilot to unlimited program tells you everything about ICE’s intentions. Originally framed as a “controlled trial” with an $180 million overall cap, this now looks like a permanent fixture of immigration enforcement. The guaranteed $7.5 million minimum per contractor signals that ICE expects serious players to build out dedicated operations. They’re not looking for part-time investigators—they want firms that can function as a de facto arm of federal enforcement.
Bounty hunter economics
The business model here is straight-up bounty hunting with corporate scaling. Firms get paid a fixed price per case plus bonuses for speed and accuracy, and they’re expected to propose their own incentive rates. Basically, the faster and more accurately they track people, the more they earn. And we’re talking about massive scale—monthly batches of 50,000 cases means this isn’t about targeting specific high-priority individuals. This is mass surveillance operations.
Data and oversight questions
Here’s the thing that should concern everyone: while contractors won’t have direct access to ICE’s internal systems, they’ll still receive “exported case packets containing a range of personal data on each target.” So sensitive information from federal databases gets handed over to private companies operating outside public oversight. What happens when that data gets mishandled, sold, or leaked? And these aren’t government employees—they’re private surveillance firms with their own profit motives.
Broader enforcement expansion
The contract also authorizes the Department of Justice and other DHS components to issue their own orders under the program. So this isn’t just about ICE—this infrastructure could be used for other types of federal tracking and surveillance. We’re essentially creating a privatized national surveillance network with financial incentives to find people. When you combine that with the scale—1.5 million people in the target docket—you have to wonder where this ends.
