{"id":79054,"date":"2026-02-07T16:43:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=79054"},"modified":"2026-02-07T16:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T00:43:42","slug":"bay-area-protestors-join-criticism-of-palantir-over-ice-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=79054","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area Protestors Join Criticism of Palantir Over ICE Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
By<\/span>Christopher Alam<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/i>
\n
\n
\"\"
The East Bay chapter of the progressive grassroots organization Our Revolution protested at Palantir\u2019s Palo Alto office on February 5th. (Image courtesy of Our Revolution)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

SAN FRANCISCO<\/strong> \u2014 Bay Area activists are rallying against Palantir Technologies, the data analytics firm co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. The moves are part of Americans\u2019\u00a0growing outrage<\/a>\u00a0over immigration enforcement following the fatal shooting of two US citizens in January.<\/p>\n

Palantir, which\u00a0received 55%<\/a>\u00a0of its revenue from government\u00a0contracts<\/a>\u00a0in 2024, won a $30 million contract last year\u00a0with ICE<\/a>. The funds are aimed at developing immigrant surveillance technology. As a result the company\u2019s stock price is\u00a0soaring<\/a>\u00a0since Trump\u2019s second term began.<\/p>\n

The East Bay chapter of the progressive grassroots organization\u00a0Our Revolution<\/a>\u00a0protested at Palantir\u2019s Palo Alto office on February 5th. According to their\u00a0website<\/a>, they are \u201cmobilizing Americans to fight oligarchy,\u201d and have\u00a0called out<\/a>\u00a0Palantir before.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Revolution is concerned that 55% of Palantir\u2019s revenues come from U.S. Government contracts,\u201d said Our Revolution East Bay co-chair Susana Williams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe support our immigrants. We understand how valuable immigrants are to California, the Bay area, and to our entire nation. We have this company that is making all of this money on the backs of people, and we just think that\u2019s really wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Palantir CEO Alex Karp said protesters demonstrating against\u00a0ICE should support the use of his company\u2019s tools in the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are critical of ICE, you should be out there protesting for more Palantir,\u201d he told CNBC\u00a0in an interview<\/a>\u00a0discussing the company\u2019s fourth-quarter results. \u201cOur product actually, in its core, requires people to conform with Fourth Amendment data protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palantir, ICE and IDF<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Williams says, \u201cThat same technology that is being used in Gaza to commit genocide is now being used to literally kill our immigrant population and American citizens who are protesting what is happening. And that\u2019s why our revolution is involved in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palantir agreed to a \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d with the Israeli Defense Ministry in 2024.\u00a0A report<\/a>\u00a0from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says there are \u201creasonable grounds to believe Palantir has provided automatic predictive policing technology, core defense infrastructure for rapid and scaled-up construction and deployment of military software, and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following mass protests in Minnesota,\u00a0reports are emerging<\/a>\u00a0of DHS compiling databases of protestors\u2019 identities and license plates. Williams says the January killing of two citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, has galvanised activist networks<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a blonde-haired, blue-eyed American citizen driving an SUV, and I would literally protect my neighbors. So as an activist, when I saw Renee Good was murdered\u2026\u00a0 that told us right there that none of us are safe,\u201d said Williams. \u201cThat even if we thought that we might be a little safe and be able to take a bigger risk than our immigrant friends, that\u2019s proving to be not true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Defund the Oligarchs\u2019 Resolution<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The protests are having an effect on Washington. Last week, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), alongside Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Delia C. Ramirez (D-IL), introduced the\u00a0\u201cDefund the Oligarchs, Fund the People\u201d Resolution<\/a>\u00a0in the U.S. House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

The resolution, which Our Revolution helped co-introduce, calls for Congress to tackle economic and political power held by billionaire oligarchs and large corporations, arguing that extreme wealth disparity undermines democratic responsiveness to everyday Americans.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0specifically condemns<\/a>\u00a0corporate lobbying, tax breaks for the wealthy, and unchecked influence over policy in favor of public needs like housing, health care, and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump promised to lower costs for families on day one, but a year since he took office, grocery, housing, and health care costs are out of control,\u201d said Rep. Tlaib in a statement. \u201cHe signed into law the largest cuts to health care and food assistance in the history of our country, all to give trillions of dollars in tax breaks to his rich donors and their massive corporations. \u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution, endorsed by a broad coalition of progressive and public-interest groups, does not currently have the votes to pass in the Republican-controlled House, but Williams sees legislation like it as essential.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Outside of the people that created them, nobody really knows what the capabilities of these mass surveillance technologies truly are,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re seeing what they\u2019re doing is pretty frightening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams added, \u201cThat resolution is meant to defund the oligarchs like those in control of Palantir. That\u2019s the way to stop these companies from sucking the lifeblood out of our country. Our government is handing Palantir all the tools and resources that they need to develop these products, which is hurting Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Alam is a\u00a0California Local News Fellow<\/a>\u00a0with the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByChristopher Alam Feb 6, 2026 The...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ca-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79054"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79056,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79054\/revisions\/79056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}