US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) plans to spend up to $180 million hiring bounty hunters and private investigators to track down tens of thousands of immigrants as part of Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda, according to government documents.
The agency has an 'immediate need' for 'skip tracing services', which could include bounty hunters, bail bondsmen, debt collectors, process servers, repossession agents and other investigators. Vendors would receive batches of 50,000 addresses each from a total 'docket size' of 1.5 million addresses, the documents state.
ICE is seeking 'enhanced location research' involving physical surveillance at more than 1 million homes, including the collection of photos and documents such as utility bills to verify an immigrant's residence or place of employment. Investigators must provide time-stamped photographs and may use automated and manual real-time skip tracing technology.
Skip tracers must report a target's physical location to the government or inform authorities if they cannot locate the person. The documents require vendors to comply with all applicable laws on data collection, privacy and reporting, and to outline their methodology for transparency.
The proposal comes as the Trump administration expands immigration arrests and detention space, jailing over 66,000 people in detention centres – a record high. Congress has allocated record sums to ICE, making it one of the world's best-funded policing agencies. Homeland Security aims to hire 10,000 new ICE agents by next year, roughly doubling the agency's size.
Critics warn that rapid hiring without adequate screening risks repeating past mistakes, including corruption and misconduct. ICE faces lawsuits alleging widespread abuse in detention centres and illegal use of force, as the administration surges federal officers into Democratic-led cities and expands partnerships with local law enforcement.
