Over the past few months, thousands of people across the United States have organized to oppose and confront the massive wave of deportations rolled out by the Donald Trump administration.These spectacular forms of protest — from demonstrations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centres to neighbourhood organizing in Minneapolis and Chicago — have captured public attention. But there is another, less visible struggle underway: the struggle for information. Social activists are wrangling data and exposing the networks of powerful entities behind Trump’s expanding surveillance apparatus.Mijente, a grassroorts organization advocating for the rights of Latinx communities in the U.S., for example, has been leading the way since Trump’s first term. Through their No Tech for ICE campaign, they have systematically documented the emergence of a sweeping surveillance regime that exposes people in the U.S. to unprecedented forms of scrutiny — in their homes, cars, workplaces and libraries.Our team interviewed members of the collective for a research project called the Data Justice Hub about groups using data for social justice. One of the clearest examples they shared with us dates back to August 2019.How ICE knew where to lookMijente told us about a large-scale immigration crackdown when 680 workers at food processing plants across Mississippi were arrested by ICE. A Mijente member (who requested anonymity) recalled:“They were going into people’s neighbourhoods, into people’s workplaces and arresting large numbers of people. Folks were asking us: How did they know where to go? How did they know where I lived? How did they know what car I drive? How did they know who my family was?”Mijente wanted to find out why ICE suddenly appeared so informed. After speaking with locals, interviewing attorneys defending arrested immigrants and sending in freedom-of-information requests, they discovered ICE was relying on data broker information to support its operations.Data brokers are companies that buy and sell personal data, regardless of the buyer’s intent. The information comes from internet browsers, libraries, cell phones, credit card purchases, financial institutions, police departments and other government agencies.These initial inquiries have spurred Mijente over the past few years to generate a comprehensive road map of the data infrastructures that have enabled deportations. It’s recently shared that Equifax, a major U.S. consumer credit reporting agency, is one of the data brokers that are now a central part of ICE’s surveillance infrastructure. As Mijente learned, Palantir FALCON Tipline, a data analytics tool built for ICE to collect and process public tips, was central to helping ICE conduct raids on undocumented immigrants working at the food processing plants. While Palantir is not a data broker per se, its software and platforms (such as Gotham and Foundry) compile large amounts of information from data brokers and government sources. Working with Palantir allowed ICE to centralize and verify anonymous leads so they could plan their operations with precision.Because information had been purchased from commercial data brokers, immigration enforcement could lawfully access personal details. American laws currently allow government agencies, including police, to obtain personal data from commercial entities without a warrant.Mijente also found that ICE was buying data from data brokers to locate immigrants and migrants already in carceral custody in different American states, detaining people upon their release and circumventing sanctuary laws. The collective used what they had uncovered about the link between Palantir, data brokers and ICE to advocate for changes to strengthen asylum laws protecting undocumented immigrants.Surveillance intensifiesWhile Mijente has made important gains with its research efforts, the fight against Trump’s expanding surveillance apparatus is far from over. Immigration enforcement is intensifying under his second term. In June 2026, a surge in ICE arrests took place, fracturing families and rupturing the lives of people, many of whom did not have previous criminal records. Beyond mining data brokers, ICE is also using facial recognition technology to identify protesters and undocumented immigrants. Advances in AI make it easier to cross-reference multiple datasets at scale, leading to concerns about an expanding data dragnet.The expanding surveillance apparatus is powerful, but it’s not inevitable. Recently, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law containing a loophole enabling ICE agents to obtain information through data brokers, expired. While the government’s surveillance certificates have been extended until March 2027 and many officials are calling for the law to be extended further, dissenters and privacy advocates are calling for the loophole to be closed.Communities continue to resist this use of surveillance tech by government and corporations. Deflock.me is a crowdsourced map of AI license plate tracking cameras used by ICE that people use to evade arrest. This kind of grassroots documentation has a name.The research Mijente conducted to expose the connection between data brokers, Palantir and ICE can be understood as a form of “sousveillance.” As we explain in Mobilizing Data for Justice, this is a practice that activists and marginalized groups engage in to “flip the script” on powerful forces and contest surveillance infrastructures. Sousveillance: Watching the watchersWhere surveillance is powerful institutions watching people from above, sousveillance is ordinary people and grassroots groups watching and documenting those institutions from below.Power mapping, a form of sousveillance, helps groups expose key figures, identify conflicts of interest and uncover unethical investments. LittleSis, a non-profit public interest research organization, developed a free online tool called Oligrapher that is used for power mapping. With this tool, activists can visualize complex power networks and social ties. Read more: Is someone watching you? Facial recognition tech is here and Canada offers little privacy protection For example, Mijente used Oligrapher as part of its No Tech for ICE campaign to expose law enforcement’s reliance on data brokers and tech companies. This information was also used to disrupt Palantir’s campus recruitment activities.Following the moneyMore recently, Mijente, Just Futures Law and the Surveillance Resistance Lab released a report documenting how increases in U.S. government spending on private contracts is supporting the aggressive expansion of immigration enforcement. Among other findings, the report reveals that ICE’s financial commitments to a core group of commercial data brokers rose from $4.9 million in 2018 to $14.5 million in 2025.Another recent example of power mapping is The Palantir Payroll, which uses U.S. Federal Election Commission filings to track how Palantir receives government contracts and how its executives support individual politicians with money. This kind of information can help activists pressure investors to divest from companies with unethical ties.As the databases of governments and private corporations are increasingly linked together — what many researchers call “surveillance capitalism” or “digital authoritarianism” — such activism is becoming more vital than ever.Chris Hurl receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.Kevin Walby receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).Sarah Grant does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.