Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR) is once again under public scrutiny, this time following sharp criticism from Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham over the company’s $30 million contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The contract involves the creation of a system dubbed Immigration Lifecycle Operating System (ImmigrationOS)—designed to track deportation cases and monitor self-deportations.
Silicon Valley Ethics Clash
Paul Graham took to X (formerly Twitter) to express disapproval, stating that top-tier developers should seek roles at companies not involved in building “the infrastructure of the police state.” His comments ignited a wave of discussion, raising broader questions about tech’s role in law enforcement and civil liberties.
Palantir’s global head of commercial, Ted Mabrey, fired back online with a pointed response:
“I’m looking forward to the next set of hires that decided to apply to Palantir after reading your post.”
Mabrey refrained from directly addressing the ICE contract specifics but contextualized Palantir’s Department of Homeland Security work, dating it back to 2011 and the tragic killing of U.S. agent Jaime Zapata by the Zetas cartel. He framed the company’s mission through a utilitarian lens:
“When people are alive because of what you built, and others are dead because what you built was not yet good enough, you develop a very different perspective.”
Tech Backlash Echoes Project Maven
Mabrey likened the situation to the Project Maven backlash that rocked Google in 2018, when employees protested its involvement in military drone surveillance. Notably, Google has since softened its stance and is reportedly more open to defense collaborations—an evolution Mabrey hinted might parallel broader trends in Silicon Valley.
Palantir continues its push to recruit young talent, especially from university campuses, using messaging like “A moment of reckoning has arrived for the West.” Mabrey encouraged potential candidates to explore CEO Alex Karp’s book, The Technological Republic, which advocates for stronger alliances between the tech sector and government agencies.
“We hire believers,” Mabrey added. “Not in the sense of ideological alignment, but in the ability to believe in something bigger than yourself.”
Constitutional Questions and Transparency
Paul Graham later challenged Palantir to publicly pledge that it will not create tools that violate the U.S. Constitution.
“If they make that commitment, and some Palantir employee is one day asked to do something illegal, I hope he’ll say, ‘I didn’t sign up for this,’ and walk away.”
Mabrey dismissed the challenge as a rhetorical trick:
“That’s the ‘will you promise to stop beating your wife’ courtroom parlor trick,” he replied.
He reiterated that Palantir has long made clear its ethical commitments and that its 3,500 employees are driven by a shared sense of purpose:
“We have made this promise so many ways from Sunday. They grind because they believe they are making the world a better place every single day.”
As debate continues around tech’s role in public policy and national security, Palantir’s stance reveals a company unapologetically at the intersection of data, defense, and values—whether critics like it or not.
