ICE has additionally procured at least one “tailored” instruction session for its personnel on utilizing Microsoft Teams. Specifics from FPDS indicated that this training would center on crafting “documents” for the administrative division of the 287(g) initiative, which empowers participating state and local agencies to collaborate with ICE. “Automated documents” are also referenced; however, FPDS offers no precise details on their nature or their function within the 287(g) program.
Christopher Muhawe, an assistant professor of law at the University of Illinois Chicago, whose research has focused on the mental impacts of the American immigration surveillance apparatus, contends that individuals seeking asylum or refugee status in the U.S., including the “security and survival” such status could offer, are “intrinsically susceptible” to the federal immigration oversight system. This vulnerability, he argues, can provoke anxiety and “significant detriment to one’s health.”
“These individuals lack adequate safeguards,” Muhawe asserts.
Microsoft did not respond to WIRED’s inquiry for commentary.
Amazon
Both CBP and ICE employ Amazon’s cloud storage services to support their operations.
Government expenditure records disclose that ICE is a client of Amazon’s “GovCloud,” an iteration of AWS that the corporation claims features elevated security specifications for handling “sensitive workloads.” As per a slide presentation submitted to SAM, the federal award management system, in July 2023, Palantir’s ICM operates on AWS.
The same document indicates that Amazon also supports “ICE Cloud,” a vital component of the agency’s infrastructure. According to the 2023 slide presentation, ICE Cloud hosts the agency’s “Digital Records Manager,” “Data Warehouse,” and the “Law Enforcement Information Sharing Service” (LEIS Service). In 2019, DHS characterized the LEIS Service as “a backend super highway data sharing system” facilitating exchange between ICE and other law enforcement entities.
The 2023 slide presentation further illustrates that ICE Cloud also provides a platform for the “PRIME Interface Hub,” which DHS explains “transmits queries to and from” two other locations. The first is ICE’s Enforcement Integrated Database, which DHS states contains “investigation, arrest, booking, detention, and removal” records for individuals encountered or apprehended by ICE, CBP, or US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The second is “TECS” (which DHS notes is no longer an acronym, but once represented the “Treasury Enforcement Communications System”), CBP’s “data exchange platform” that permits authorized users to access CBP databases containing information about anyone who entered the U.S. by air, sea, vehicle, or on foot, along with any assets confiscated at the border.
Amazon additionally powers ICE’s “Student and Exchange Visitor Program Automated Information Management System,” as indicated by a September 2025 transaction. This appears to be either a specific function within, or an alternative designation for, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which retains data regarding individuals pursuing education in the U.S.
Two FPDS payments—though processed in 2020 and 2022, preceding the period WIRED investigated—are sufficiently noteworthy to merit mention. These transactions revealed that Amazon was supplying foundational technology for ICE’s Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment (RAVEn), a utility for agents to examine “raw or unassessed datasets”—including documents, images, audio, and other data—from over a dozen federal databases. A 2023 report from the DHS Office of the Inspector General characterizes RAVEn as a “proprietary” tool. It encompasses a primary “search and analysis utility,” a mechanism for disseminating “investigative tips and results” across HSI regional offices, and a portable application.
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