New York City Comptroller Mark Levine, citing human rights concerns, is requesting an independent investigation into the immigration enforcement and homeland security work of Palantir Technologies, a multibillion-dollar data analytics company in which millions of dollars of the city’s pension funds are invested.
Levine requested the inquiry in a letter sent on Wednesday morning to Alexandra Schiff, a member of the board of directors for Palantir, which has contracted with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more than a decade. The company's technology has formed part of the backbone of President Donald Trump’s surveillance dragnet for immigration enforcement.
In his letter, Levine invoked the recent fatal shootings by ICE officers of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, and cited potential “legal, reputational and human capital risks” to the company.
“The apparent divergence between Palantir’s human rights commitments and the troubling public reports of ICE activities underscores the need for effective oversight,” wrote Levine, who manages the city’s pension fund investments as part of his role as city comptroller.
There was no immediate comment from Palantir, which was founded by tech billionaire Peter Thiel and is based in Denver.
The comptroller’s request comes as state and local government pension fund investments and even private contracts tied to federal immigration enforcement are receiving increased scrutiny, amid nationwide polls showing public disapproval of ICE’s activities.
Palantir's work has been under a spotlight. Last year, ICE awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to develop an artificial intelligence-powered tool called ImmigrationOS that pulls together data from across government databases to help identify, track and ultimately deport immigrants.
ICE officers in Minneapolis have been using a database built by Palantir to identify individuals who are targets for enforcement in real time, the New York Times reported.
Holdings in Palantir represent a fraction of New York City’s five public pension funds’ roughly $300 billion in assets, which support 750,000 current and retired public servants. But the value of the pension funds’ holdings in Palantir under former Comptroller Brad Lander, who left his post at the end of last year, more than tripled from $17.6 million in 2022 to $56.6 million in 2024, according to a report last month from local news outlet amNewYork. The value of those holdings has since ballooned to $457 million as of the end of last year, according to spokesperson for Levine.
Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Lander, said the pension system did not actively buy more Palantir stock during his tenure, but the stock price rose exponentially, increasing the value of the holdings, which are part of broader index funds. Still, Lander, who is challenging fellow Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman for his 10th District seat representing Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, has faced criticism about the Palantir investments from the left in light of his frequent criticism of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Hitt said the legal limitations governing the pension funds prevented Lander from using the funds as a "political tool,” given that decisions governing the pension funds must be made for financial reasons. But she said Lander, if elected, vows to stop Palantir and other companies from aiding in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Lander made some politically charged financial decisions during his time as comptroller. In October 2024, he moved to end the pension funds' private market investments in fossil fuel companies. In January 2023, he ended pension fund investments in Israeli sovereign bonds, a move he later defended, saying he was following the city's policy of avoiding investments in foreign sovereign debt.
Responding to controversy over the decision, Lander said he opposed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, targeted for alleged human rights abuses, and that he maintained millions in Israel-based assets, including in stocks and real estate investment trusts.
Palantir is the first and only company in the city’s pension fund portfolio into which Levine — a Democrat who has endorsed Goldman in the House race — has requested extra scrutiny. But a spokesperson for the comptroller, whose term began Jan. 1, said the office is considering further scrutiny of other companies.
Aside from requesting the human rights investigation, Levine stopped short of stating he was prepared to divest in Palantir.
Levine’s letter also comes as government pension funds for New York and New Jersey state governments have faced scrutiny from comptroller candidates and immigration activists over their investments in Palantir.
Raj Goyle and Drew Warshaw, Democrats who are challenging state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, have called on DiNapoli to divest the state’s $290 billion pension funds from its more than $430 million holdings in Palantir.
Matthew Sweeney, a spokesperson for DiNapoli, said in a statement that DiNapoli “categorically condemns ICE’s ongoing terror campaign against immigrant communities.” He added that the Palantir holdings are part of broader index funds, and weren’t singled out for investment.
DiNapoli also wrote a letter to Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp on Jan. 23, requesting that the company provide more information about its services provided to ICE and DHS, oversight of that work by the board of directors, and the company’s plan for mitigating potential human rights violations associated with its immigration work.
New Jersey immigration advocates and religious leaders have similarly called on the State Investment Council to divest the state’s $80 billion pension funds from its roughly $130 million holdings in Palantir.
In his letter, Levine asked that members of Palantir’s board of directors commission and oversee the human rights investigation, and that the inquiry address the company’s work with the DHS, including ICE.
Levine’s letter invoked Palantir’s own human rights policy, which refers to the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a framework that suggests corporate responsibility for conducting “due diligence” on potential human rights violations.
Amnesty International, in a 2020 report, concluded that Palantir failed to conduct appropriate due diligence on potential human rights issues, and that there was a "high risk" that the company is contributing to "serious" human rights violations of migrants and asylum-seekers by the U.S. government.
On Monday, Palantir reported a major jump in sales, largely driven by a boost in U.S. government contracts. In his most recent letter to shareholders, published that day, Karp defended and extolled the company's surveillance technology, saying it can also protect citizens against government overreach.
This story was updated with additional information about the value of the city's pension fund holdings in Palantir.
