Palantir's H-1B Hiring Sparks Fears Over Sensitive U.S. Data Access

Yahoo

4 hours ago

Palantir Technologies, the surveillance giant under growing scrutiny for its ties to the Trump administration, employs scores of foreign workers even as it helps compile vast amounts of sensitive data on Americans.
Palantir sponsored 78 foreign workers in 2024 — the most recent year for which data is available — and has sponsored 263 workers under the program since 2020, The H-1B Salary Database indicates that about half of these roles are for AI and software engineering positions, placing foreign nationals in critical technical roles at a company now reportedly embedded in the core operations of U.S. federal agencies.
Nationals from India and China receive the most H-1B visas of any country's workers. USCIS data reveals that during fiscal year 2023, 72% of H-1B visas were issued to Indians, while 12% went to the Chinese.
The database disclosures stand in stark contrast to recent revelations from The New York Times, which reported on May 30 that Palantir has become the centerpiece of an ambitious effort by the Trump administration to centralize federal data on American citizens. The reporting detailed how Palantir's Foundry platform is being adopted across agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Health and Human Services, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), enabling the administration to merge disparate databases that contain financial, medical, and immigration records.
The Times reported that Palantir, co-founded by Peter Thiel and led by CEO Alex Karp, received more than $113 million in federal contracts under the Trump administration, not including a new $795 million Department of Defense award. Former employees and privacy advocates voiced concern that the company — already entwined with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Pentagon — is facilitating the construction of what critics describe as a potential 'national citizen database.'
The concerns are compounded by the company's international footprint and foreign staffing. Palantir lists between 1,000 and 5,000 employees on LinkedIn, with most external estimates placing its global headcount at just under 4,000. The company maintains a presence on every inhabited continent — including operations and staff in Asia and Europe, according to LeadIQ.
A recent Business Insider Africa report also confirmed that Palantir provides artificial intelligence tools to foreign militaries, including those of Israel and Ukraine. The firm held its first 2025 board meeting in Tel Aviv and has partnered with the Israeli Ministry of Defense to support ongoing war efforts.
The optics of such international entanglements have not gone unnoticed among former staff. In a letter obtained by NPR and published May 5, thirteen former Palantir employees condemned the company's expanding work with the Trump administration, particularly its $30 million deal with ICE to develop a system capable of tracking migrant movement in near real-time.
'Early Palantirians understood the ethical weight of building these technologies… These principles have now been violated and are rapidly being dismantled at Palantir Technologies,' the ex-employees wrote. The former employees also warned that the software they helped build could now be used for surveillance targeting immigrant families, journalists, and political dissenters.
The New York Times further detailed internal dissent among employees disturbed by the firm's proximity to Trump's political agenda. Some engineers reportedly raised red flags about inadequate security practices among Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staff — a Trump-aligned task force spearheading the data initiative, many of whom previously worked at Palantir or companies funded by Thiel.
Despite public concerns, Palantir has emphasized that it acts only as a data processor. In a 2020 blog post, the company The White House declined to comment for the Times story but pointed to President Trump's executive order mandating that federal data silos be eliminated in favor of cross-agency access. Supporters argue the plan increases government efficiency and saves taxpayer money. However, critics — including civil liberties lawyers — have warned that concentrating this data creates new risks of abuse.
Mario Trujillo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told the Times, 'If people can't trust that the data they are giving the government will be protected, it will lead to a crisis of trust.'
The Dallas Express contacted Palantir to ask whether H-1B workers are processing sensitive American data; a company spokesman did not return a comment by the time of publication.