A partially unsealed filing in Hilton et al. v. Noem alleges that an Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent entered information about people observing a January 2026 ICE operation into ICE’s Investigative Case Management (ICM) system. WIRED reported the filing included photographs, facial-recognition searches and a license-plate lookup. That is an allegation in an active civil-rights case—not a court finding that ICE maintains a standalone domestic-terrorism database, and not a finding that Palantir directed the conduct.
What the filing alleges happened
WIRED reported on October 2, 2026, that the filing concerns “Operation Catch of the Day,” an immigration-enforcement surge in Maine in January 2026. The filing, based substantially on government-produced documents and agent depositions, reportedly identifies an HSI agent as “J.C.” and alleges that he used ICM to create records on people observing the operation.
The plaintiffs’ filing reportedly described at least six observers. The government put the number at eight. Those are competing accounts, not a number established by the court.
Photographs and the “professional protestor” label
According to WIRED’s account of the filing, two people photographed at a Home Depot parking lot were labeled “Threat to Law Enforcement, Professional Protestor.” The filing reportedly says J.C. sent photographs of them and other observers to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer for a facial-recognition search using an app called Mobile Query.
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The label is presented as part of the alleged records; it is not a formal court finding or proof that the people were threats.
The Portland vehicle and license-plate allegation
The reported filing describes a January 20 incident in Portland. It alleges that Polyxenia Pantos watched and photographed an arrest from beside their spouse’s vehicle. WIRED says the filing alleges J.C. ran the vehicle’s license plate and obtained an Accurint report on the registered owner, Carlyn Williams. The report allegedly contained Williams’s address, phone numbers and cohabitants.
WIRED further reported that the filing says J.C. circulated Williams’s photograph to colleagues and later created an ICM record. These details remain claims presented in the litigation, not adjudicated facts.
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How the alleged warnings and watchlist references differ
WIRED reported that Williams said the agent warned her to discourage Pantos from similar conduct and referred to possible placement on a domestic-terrorism watchlist. The report also says J.C. testified that he warned of arrest if the conduct continued, while government attorneys said he denied mentioning a watchlist.
The government argued that the agent did not try to nominate anyone to a terrorist watchlist. That position addresses the alleged threat and nomination process; it does not erase the separate allegation that observer information was entered into ICM.
What ICE’s ICM system is
ICM is described as HSI’s case-management system for documenting investigations. WIRED reported that ICE contracted Palantir to build it and that ICM uses Palantir’s Gotham software customized for ICE operations.
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A record in an operational case-management system is not the same thing as a separate database devoted to domestic protesters or domestic terrorism. The reported dispute turns partly on that distinction: plaintiffs describe alleged records about observers, while DHS denies maintaining a standalone database of U.S. citizens who protest ICE activities.
Reported information flow to CBP
WIRED reported that a 2016 DHS privacy assessment described ICM subject records as automatically shared with CBP’s TECS system, where they function as lookout records for border screening. That description does not establish what happened to any particular observer’s record or whether a specific person experienced a border consequence.
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Why Palantir’s role matters—and what it does not show
Palantir’s role matters because its Gotham software is reported to underpin ICM, the system in which the filing alleges observer records were created. WIRED reported that ICE awarded Palantir the ICM build contract in 2014. It also reported that a 2022 five-year ICM support contract had an initial maximum value of about $96 million and that a 2025 addition of nearly $30 million was associated with a platform called ImmigrationOS.
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Those figures are reported contract values, not confirmed current spending or final totals. More importantly, identifying Palantir as the system builder does not establish that the company directed, knew about or approved an individual agent’s decisions. Palantir is not identified as a party to Hilton et al. v. Noem, and WIRED reported that it had not responded to a request for comment.
Plaintiffs’ allegations and the government’s response
| Issue | Plaintiffs’ account | Government’s response |
|---|---|---|
| What happened to observers | Observers were surveilled, intimidated and entered into an operational system after documenting immigration enforcement. | The government calls the case meritless and characterizes the reported conduct as isolated. |
| Domestic-terrorism database | The filing describes alleged references to a domestic-terrorism watchlist and records about observers. | DHS says the suit is based on what its spokesperson called “the lie that there is a database of ‘domestic terrorists’ run by DHS.” |
| Policy | The plaintiffs seek orders governing collection, retention and sharing of biometric and personal information and retaliation for First Amendment activity. | The government says the conduct, if it occurred as described, was contrary to DHS policy and involved people agents viewed as potential threats to law enforcement. |
| ICE databases | Individual records in ICM could be used or shared in ways that affect observers. | Former acting ICE director Todd Lyons wrote in an April letter to Representative Maxwell Frost that ICE does not maintain a database of U.S. citizens protesting ICE activities and that DHS has no separate standalone database of people it has not arrested or detained. |
These positions can coexist: DHS can deny a dedicated protester or domestic-terrorism database while individual records are allegedly created in a broader case-management system. Whether the alleged records were lawful is a question for the litigation, not something settled by either side’s public description.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the Maine court has decided
Hilton et al. v. Noem, No. 2:2026cv00092, is a putative class action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine. The docket says it was filed on February 23, 2026. The named plaintiffs are Elinor Hilton, Colleen Fagan, Polyxenia Pantos and Carlyn Williams. Their April 27 amended complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief concerning alleged surveillance and intimidation of people observing immigration enforcement in Maine.
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The April 2026 temporary-restraining-order decision
The plaintiffs asked for emergency relief against collecting, maintaining or sharing their biometric and personal data and against retaliation for exercising First Amendment rights. In April 2026, the court denied a temporary restraining order.
The order said the constitutional issues were serious but that the evidence then before the court did not justify emergency relief. Its language was explicit: “The court concludes that this lawsuit raises serious constitutional issues that are better aired and resolved on a nonemergency basis.”
A TRO denial is not a ruling that ICE’s alleged actions were legal, and it is not a finding that the allegations are true. It means only that the emergency record did not warrant the requested temporary order at that stage.
Later docket activity
Retrieved docket listings show discovery proceedings and filings through August 21, 2026. They do not provide a live status update for October 2, 2026. Any current deadline, later order or merits decision would need to be checked against the court’s current docket.
What remains unresolved
- Whether the alleged ICM records were created exactly as the filing describes.
- How many observers had records created: the plaintiffs’ reported count is at least six, while the government’s reported count is eight.
- Whether any record was used for a border-screening action or caused a concrete consequence for an observer.
- Whether the alleged conduct violated DHS policy or the Constitution.
- Whether the case will produce class-wide injunctions, declarations or other merits relief.
No source cited here establishes how often ICE or DHS records people who observe enforcement activity. This case should not be treated as a prevalence estimate.
The Bottom Line
The reported filing alleges that an HSI agent put photographs and identifying information about Maine ICE-operation observers into ICM, a Palantir-built system. DHS disputes the characterization as a domestic-terrorist database, and the Maine court has not decided the underlying constitutional claims; it only denied emergency relief on the evidence then available.
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