ICE triples spending on immigrant tracking
U.S. ICE issued $57.1 million in new orders to 14 firms for locating immigrants in August 2026, nearly tripling its initial spending.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed $57.1 million in new orders with private companies to locate immigrants on August 27, 2026. The agency hired 14 firms for the work, nearly tripling the value of its first round of contracts.
The new package of orders is almost exactly three times the size of the initial contracting round, which ran from December 2025 to May 14, 2026. The largest individual award in the latest round, worth $14.5 million, went to Capgemini Government Solutions.
Contract Values Surge for Individual Firms
The overall increase in spending applied across the new package, but payments to individual contractors rose sharply. Two examples illustrate the scale of the jump between the initial and latest rounds.
| Contractor | Initial Order Value | August 2026 Order Value |
|---|---|---|
| Constellation | $767,468.75 | $2,302,406.25 |
| Enprovera | $34,552 | $103,656 |
The work involves finding where a person lives or works. Contractors use public records, commercial databases, and online sources to identify possible addresses. They then verify the address in person and photograph it as proof for enforcement and removal operations.
Performance Incentives Draw Criticism
The agency's contracting model includes incentives tied to performance. According to the source, the earlier contract structure linked compensation to the speed and number of people a company successfully locates.
This arrangement has drawn criticism. Sharon Bradford Franklin, the former chair of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, criticized that incentive structure. Franklin described the firms involved as "bounty hunters" and stated, "It's the same kind of incentive situation."
Payments can therefore rise with the number of immigrants found. The process can target a person's home or workplace, with the assignment being to establish where that individual can be found.
Expanded Private Capacity for Enforcement
The increase in spending comes as ICE relies more heavily on private firms to support its immigration enforcement activities. The first round involved 13 companies, while the latest round names 14 private contractors, reflecting a broader group working on the locating effort.
Individual firms receive different task-order amounts, which can range from the six-figure awards cited for Enprovera to the multimillion-dollar orders issued to Constellation and Capgemini Government Solutions. The contracts' potential ceiling remains up to $1.2 billion over two years, a figure that represents the maximum possible value, not the amount actually spent. The August 2026 package alone totals $57.1 million.
The new orders expand both the amount paid to contractors and the department's use of private companies in immigration enforcement.
