People who watched and filmed immigration arrests in Maine this winter were entered into a federal investigative database built by Palantir, and at least two were labeled a "Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor," according to a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security. The claims come from a motion in Hilton v. Noem, a proposed class action in federal court in Maine, which was filed under seal in September and made public in redacted form on October 2. They are the plaintiffs' allegations, and the court has not ruled on them. DHS calls the case meritless, denies keeping a database of protesters, and says the conduct described was isolated and against its policy.
What the plaintiffs say happened
The four named plaintiffs, Elinor Hilton, Colleen Fagan, Polyxenia Pantos and Carlyn Williams, watched agents at work during Operation Catch of the Day, an immigration-enforcement surge in Maine that began on January 20. The motion says an agent identified only as "J.C." created records on at least six observers in Investigative Case Management, or ICM, the system that ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit uses to document criminal investigations; government filings put the number at eight. According to the motion, the records held photographs, license plate numbers, home addresses, phone numbers and the names of people in the observers' households.
The motion says that after Pantos photographed an arrest in Portland, J.C. ran the plate of a car registered to her spouse, Williams, through a LexisNexis law-enforcement database, pulled Williams's address, phone numbers and household members, and entered both of them into ICM. It also says a Customs and Border Protection officer ran facial-recognition searches on observers' photos with a phone app called Mobile Query, and that agents drove past observers' homes. Williams says J.C. phoned and warned that continued observing could lead to a domestic-terrorism watchlist entry. In a deposition, the agent denied using those words but, according to the filing, said Williams could be arrested.
From a Portland sidewalk to the Canadian border
ICM was built by Palantir on its Gotham software; ICE first hired the company for it in 2014. A 2016 DHS privacy assessment says records in ICM are automatically shared with TECS, the system Customs and Border Protection uses to screen travelers, where they can act as lookout alerts at the border. On March 16, the motion says, Pantos and Williams were held for about an hour at the Jackman border crossing on their way back from Quebec, and it alleges that Williams's ICM and TECS records contributed to that stop.
The government's answer
DHS has asked the court to dismiss the case. In its filings it says the agent created records on people he believed posed a safety threat, that the conduct was isolated and contrary to department policy, and that none of the plaintiffs was put forward for the terrorist watchlist. In June, Todd Lyons, then ICE's acting director, wrote to Rep. Maxwell Frost that ICE does not keep a database of U.S. citizens who protest its activities, while acknowledging that it may collect information on people it believes are involved in possible violations of federal law or pose a threat to officers' safety. Palantir did not respond to reporters' requests for comment.
The plaintiffs, represented by the legal group Protect Democracy, want the court to correct Williams's records, bar DHS from using what it gathered against them, and stop agents in Maine from threatening observers with watchlists or following them home. "The government is treating people who exercise their First Amendment rights and seek to hold it accountable as criminal suspects, and that's what we're asking the court to stop," Protect Democracy lawyer JoAnna Suriani told WIRED.
Sources: WIRED, October 2, 2026, and summaries of the unsealed motion by NeoTeo (October 2) and Gadget Review (October 3); DHS privacy impact assessment for ICM, June 2016; NPR, June 10, 2026.
