Alvaro Bedoya Profile picture
Sep 22, 2020 13 tweets 8 min read Read on X
1/ I've worked in tech policy for a decade. In most rooms, I'm usually the only Latino - almost always the only Latinx immigrant.

If you care about immigrants or Latinx people, if you care about kids, I need you to care about Palantir's IPO next Tuesday.
slate.com/technology/202…
2/ Palantir wrote the final layer of code facilitating countless deportations - and Trump's first systematic family separations.

When confronted, Palantir's CEO has made demonstrably false denials. He has lied.

Their stock goes on sale Tuesday as if none of this had happened.
3/ A teen arrives alone at the border after traveling 2,000 miles to escape a violent uncle. Feds ask his brother to take him in.

The brother asks: If I say yes, will ICE come for me? They say no.

7 months later, ICE shows up at his house and arrests him santafenewmexican.com/news/local_new…
4/ A young family gets a knock at their door. A child answers. As the kids watch, ICE agents come in and arrest their dad.

He's been here decades. Clean record. How'd they find him? From the license he'd just got at the DMV.

See her testify (@ 1:42:35): mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Com…
5/ Who wrote the code helping agents use data from a scared, detained kid to help ICE deport their sponsor?

Palantir.

Take ICE’s word for it. Ctrl+F for “ICM” (Palantir’s case management software) in this doc obtained by @Mijente. documentcloud.org/documents/5980…
6/ Who built a portal for agents to conveniently access driver’s license data networks?

Palantir.

Again, don’t take my word for it. Read ICE’s own documentation of Palantir software. Pages 17-18 here ("Nlets"): dhs.gov/sites/default/…
7/ Alex Karp has called Palantir’s work for ICE “limited” and a “de minimis part of our work.”

Ah - strange thing for the CEO of an imminently public company to say about their *second largest U.S. government client* in FY19 & FY18: usaspending.gov/recipient/8faa…
8/ The other thing that Palantir says is that they work for ICE Homeland Security Investigations, not Enforcement and Removal Operations.

Here's their quote to @dealbook:
9/ ...so why does ICE's documentation of Palantir software say THIRTEEN TIMES that it will also be used by ERO?

Here's two of those 13:
dhs.gov/sites/default/…
10/ People like to say "this is not normal."

When a company that profits from ICE family separations IPOs and no one bats an eye, we make it normal.

When they lie about it and no one says a thing, we make it normal.

Please pay attention. Please SAY SOMETHING
11/ People can decide for themselves if, in September 2020, it will be profitable to invest in a company that derives a substantial portion of its revenues from the deportation economy.

The moral case is more than clear.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
11/ YA BASTA. Please, for the child in your life, for the immigrant in your life, for the Latinx family down the block, tell people the truth about Palantir.

For help doing that, follow @ConMijente. #DefundPalantir
12/ If you want to help, follow @MijenteComite, @ConMijente, @JustFuturesLaw, @ImmDefense, and the hashtags #NoTechForICE and #DefundPalantir.

For more information on how Palantir fuels deportations, read this report from @EmpowerLLC & the folks above: mijente.net/wp-content/upl…

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More from @alvarombedoya

Feb 26, 2021
For years, people knew that ICE could search the addresses of the customers of 80 gas, water, electric, phone, and cable companies.

But no one has known how ICE gets that data, or the companies who are sharing it.

Our new technologist, @NinaLWang, seems to have figured it out.
People get gas, water, and electricity in their home because they need heat, water, and lights to survive. ICE takes advantage of those basic needs to find and deport people.
ICE gets this data from Thomson Reuters.

They get it from Equifax.

Equifax gets it from the National Consumer Telecom Utilities Exchange.

Question is, is NCTUE data going to ICE?

If so 171 million people have been sold out to ICE. And they have no idea.

(Image: NCTUE)
Read 11 tweets
Nov 22, 2020
The first time I heard the word Latinx I was like “wait, what did you call me? Yeah, no, whatever that is I am not that.”

But then they explained it to me. And I came around. So, here’s a few thoughts why I use it myself and for the people I feel a part of.
I call myself Latinx for the same reason I *don’t* call my wife "Mrs. Alvaro M. Bedoya”: women and non-binary people exist and deserve the same respect I do.

Also, I don't want to call people of Latin American descent a term that erases most people of Latin American descent.
“It doesn’t respect the rules of the Spanish language.”

I’d take this seriously if I wasn’t called Al-VAH-ro daily, if we didn’t cross the border to “MeCKSico,” or if there was literally more than one (1) show on TV where supposed Spanish-speakers actually spoke Spanish.
Read 16 tweets
Oct 29, 2020
1/ Miles Taylor is no resistance hero. He was an active facilitator of the separations of thousands of boys and girls from their parents who is now whitewashing his own reputation.
nytimes.com/2020/10/28/us/…
2/ Miles Taylor propagated the myth that the moms and dads arriving at the border were not in fact parents.

Don't take my word for it. Here's the stories he solicited for Secretary Nielsen to use for this, and a link to his email soliciting them. documentcloud.org/documents/6881…
3/ When the full horror of family separations began to emerge, Miles Taylor did not denounce them. Instead, he sent Kirstjen Nielsen talking points to argue that the administration was actually *protecting* children.

Don't take my word for it. Here's the email.
Read 8 tweets
Oct 29, 2020
1/ Thanks to the reporting of @Haleaziz, @aflores, @SalHernandez, @RMac18 and @jacobsoboroff, we know that Miles Taylor’s claims to have been uninvolved in DHS family separations is fiction. buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/hameda…
2/ Here in April 2018 is Miles Taylor asking Katie Waldman (now Miller) for cases to help Secretary Nielsen propagate the fiction that the families showing up at the border were actually fake.
3/ Here’s her reply. Note the language around “family units” and “Honduran male adults.”
Read 7 tweets
Sep 28, 2020
1/ If you are thinking about investing in @PalantirTech, then here are some people who you should be aware of.

#DefundPalantir #NoTechForICE
2/ A 7-year-old boy fled Honduras after his dad was murdered and his mom left him. His uncle took him in.

ICE agents came to their home claiming that they were checking on the boy.

With the boy watching, the agents arrested the uncle and then put him in removal proceedings.
3/ A gang breaks into the home of two brothers in El Salvador and assaults them. They flee to the U.S. to be with their mom.

They give CBP officers their mom's name and address.

Then ICE agents show up at her house, arrest her, and deport her to El Salvador.
Read 12 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
The Feldman op-ed reminds me of a warning I give my law students.

I start by admitting that I hated law school. If the student is struggling, I’ll add that I once told a friend that if I ever try to teach law school, “please shoot me in the head.” There was an extra word there.
I tell them that I hated law school because it rewards, hand over fist, a very specific kind of intelligence: The ability to answer, on-the-fly and on-the-spot, to an abstract hypothetical that’s divorced from reality — without reference to notes or the ability to reflect.
This isn’t just cold-calling or Socratic method. It is also exams. The highest compliment you can pay someone in law schools is “Oh my God, they are so smart” — with the “smart” referring to that intelligence.
Read 10 tweets

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