Raids by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have made national headlines. But behind ICE’s operations, a sprawling web of private companies – from global powerhouses to niche family-run businesses – have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts. Peter Andringa from the FT’s visual investigations team spent months crawling through federal documents and data sets to put together a picture of the companies that make up this web.

Clips from ABC7 News Bay Area, CBS 6 Albany, C-SPAN, Donald J Trump, Fox 26 Houston, Fox Nashville, Fox News, NBC Connecticut, The New York Times

The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.

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For further reading:

Companies reap $22bn from Trump’s immigration crackdown

Trump’s immigration data dragnet

The booming business of Trump’s deportation flights

For further listening:

Palantir’s relentless rise

US uses private data to track immigrants

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Follow Peter Andringa on X (@peterjandringa), or on Bluesky (@peter.andringa.me) Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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