--- title: "Elon Musk Using Private Data to Build List of People to Deport" description: "Elon Musk is planning to mine private data from multiple agencies to assist in speedier deportations on his way out the White House door." date: "2025-04-28" modified: "2025-04-28" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-private-data-deportation" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "data privacy" - "doge" - "elon musk" - "immigration" --- # Elon Musk Using Private Data to Build List of People to Deport ![Elon Musk is planning to mine private data from multiple agencies to assist in speedier deportations on his way out the White House door.]() *\Image: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / VIEWpress / Getty\* Elon Musk is [slated to leave the White House]() soon — but he's still planning to mine private data with the help of his [old friend Peter Thiel]() to assist in speedier deportations on his way out the door. According to sources who [spoke to *Wired*]() and [*CNN*](), Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to harvest all kinds of sensitive data as it builds out a centralized database of immigrants targeted for deportation. Sources who spoke to both outlets said DOGE is planning to use software from Palantir, Thiel's data mining company that has [long worked with the government](), to compile information from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Although Palantir has [worked for over a decade]() with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track immigrants regardless of documentation, it appears that this new effort will have fingers in more agencies as it centralizes data the government will need to deport people at top speed. "They’re going to take the information we already have and put it into a system," a Trump administration official told *CNN*. "It will be able to rapidly queue information. Everyone is converting to Palantir." According to another White House insider who spoke to *CNN* on condition of anonymity, this new database will help ICE quickly build "targeting lists" to identify, detain, and deport immigrants. Others who spoke to the broadcaster were rightfully troubled by that use case. "If they are designing a deportation machine," a former senior IRS employee told *CNN*, "they will be able to do that." Along with concerns about the alleged database's uses, others are raising alarm bells regarding the privacy violations it may entail. "A pattern of technical malfeasance has emerged, showing these DOGE staffers are not abiding by our nation’s privacy and cybersecurity laws and their actions are more in line with tactics used by adversaries," a senior aide to the House Oversight Committee told *Wired*. "They are using excessive and unprecedented system access to intentionally cover their tracks and avoid oversight so they can creep on Americans' data from the shadows." Beyond the draconian purpose of the alleged immigration database — which Trump, notably, denied would be used for deportation in a [recent interview with *Time*]() — building a singular, centralized file of that sort would set a horrific precedent regardless of how anyone came to this country. As attorney Karen Noble of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told *Wired*, "there's a reason these systems are siloed": because bad actors, inside or outside the government, could use such a database to track and target anyone they wanted. **More on DOGE:** [*Elon Musk Is Shutting Down the Part of the Government That Helped Him Save Tesla*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()