Palantir told ICE operators to disable filters to surface all targets — then cross-referenced Medicaid records for raid locations

Palantir Told ICE to Turn Off the Filters. Then They Used Your Medicaid Records.

Palantir has a published Human Rights Policy. It commits to "human rights due diligence" and promises not to enable systems that facilitate abuse. The leaked ELITE user guide — obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation — tells a different story.

What the Guide Said

The internal Palantir ELITE documentation instructed ICE operators to disable eligibility filters inside the platform. The explicit purpose: surface every possible target, not just those flagged by standard enforcement criteria. Turning off the filter was not a bug. It was a documented feature.

Medicaid in the Loop

Oregon federal court testimony, entered into the record in April 2026, confirmed that ICE cross-referenced Medicaid enrollment records with Palantir ELITE outputs to select specific raid locations. Medicaid records contain home addresses, household composition, and dates of service. Patients provide that data to receive healthcare — not to be located by federal immigration enforcement.

The Human Rights Policy vs. the Actual Product

Palantir's public policy says the company will not build tools that "enable arbitrary surveillance." Its product manual says disable the filters. Those two documents describe different companies. The court record describes what the product actually did.