Stephen Miller owns stock in ICE contractor Palantir — a company powering deportations
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of much of the Trump administration's anti-immigration agenda, owns up to $250,000 dollars in stock in government contractor Palantir, according to disclosures.
The investment, held in one of Miller's children's brokerage accounts, raises conflict of interest red flags as the tech company continues to play a substantial role in the work of U.S. immigration officials.
'Given Palantir's contracts with ICE, and Miller's work with the agency, that raises ethics concerns,' watchdog group Citizens for Ethics in Washington wrote on X on Tuesday.
The government dismissed the concerns over the holdings, which were disclosed in financial filings obtained by the Project on Government Oversight watchdog group, showing revisions as recent as June 4.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called the group's report 'very silly' while the White House claimed that Miller confirmed to ethics officials that 'he has and will continue to recuse from participating in official matters that could affect those stocks.'
Palantir has long served as a government contractor, working with a variety of U.S. agencies on issues ranging from tax data to distributing vaccines, but the firm has occupied a prominent — and lucrative — role as the Trump administration pursues its mass deportation campaign.
In April, the firm won a $30 million Immigration and Customs Enforcement contract to deliver an operating system tracking and managing deportations, as well as granting 'near real-time visibility' on those who 'self-deport.'
Leaked chats obtained by 404 Media describe the company assisting ICE with finding the physical location of people slated for deportation.
The firm is also reportedly assisting the Trump administration as it looks to streamline and centralize government data about millions of Americans, an effort which has drawn criticism from members of Congress who fear it could usher in mass surveillance.
Palantir insists it is not building any 'master list' for the government, and that its separate agency customers control the data they process using Palantir tools within clear legal and ethical guardrails.
Miller's reported investments are the latest sign of Palantir's deep ties with the new administration.
As of December, the firm was reportedly in talks with defense tech company Anduril, as well as eventual White House advisor Elon Musk's SpaceX, to form a consortium to bid on government contracts, according to the Financial Times.
Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, was among the scores of tech executives who donated to Trump's inauguration in January — $1 million, in his case — and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel was a key backer and former employer of Vice President JD Vance.
Once Trump was in office, the firm won a $795 million Pentagon contract, and its name appeared among the high-profile corporate sponsors of the Army's 250th anniversary event in Washington earlier this month.
Palantir's chief technology officer was among the prominent tech executives formally sworn into the Army's new innovation corps this month.
The watchdog group that obtained Miller's filing identified 11 other administration officials who either currently hold or have owned stock in Palantir, though none with holdings as large as Miller.
In May, a group of former Palantir employees warned in an open letter that the company was 'normalizing authoritarianism under the guise of a 'revolution' led by oligarchs.'
'By supporting Trump's administration, Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, and dangerous expansions of executive power, they have abandoned their responsibility and are in violation of Palantir's Code of Conduct,' the employees wrote.
The company has long insisted it is guided by a patriotic mission and strict care for civil liberties.
'Palantir's founding mission and our commitment to privacy and civil liberties, which have guided our work for over 20 years, help the US government deliver essential services to the American people,' it wrote in a June blog post, after Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to company leadership criticizing it for allegedly 'enabling and profiting from serious violations of federal law by the Trump administration.'
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The author of the land-sale provision is Utah's senior senator, Republican Mike Lee, who has for years argued that the federal government is an 'absentee landowner' that was never intended to own and control so much land across the West. As the influential chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is responsible for the budget of the Interior Department, Lee proposed the bill that he says is intended to allow fast-growing Western communities to buy 'underutilized' federal land that's constraining their growth. The surplussed BLM lands would be primarily used for affordable housing, he says in a video promoting his bill. But public-lands advocates quickly noted that the language of the bill would enable a wide range of purposes of the disposed public lands, including enlarging private ranches, building data centers, and potentially privatizing entire mountain ranges. 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In order to become law, the budget must pass the full Senate, then return to the House of Representatives for what's called concurrence, or working out any differences between the two versions. If the amended bill passes the House, it would go to the president for approval. President Donald Trump has indicated that he wants to sign the budget bill by July 4. Knowing the fate of the land-sale amendment depends upon the House, Lee exempted Montana's federal land from his bill, and according to sources, in hopes that by sidelining Montana's influential senator Steve Daines (R), his bill might have a better chance of passage in the Senate. The Republicans have a 3-vote majority in the Senate, which means Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S. Dakota) can't afford to lose many defectors. But Western Republican Senators, hearing from their constituents about their dislike for federal-land sales, are starting to squirm. Here's the first line of defense, says Newberg. Call your state's two senators, whether you live in the West or not, and whether they're Republicans or Democrats. 'The Senate remains a very polite, deliberative body, almost the opposite from the performative politics of the House,' says Newberg. 'There's an unwritten rule in the Senate that you don't embarrass a committee chair, and so there's (likely) not going to be a floor vote over Lee's bill. Instead, it's going to be a quiet process where influential senators go to Thune and tell him that they can't vote for the budget if it contains the land-sale language. 'These Senators, they're going to be telling Thune, 'Do you really want President Trump's bill to be slowed down and screwed up by some little fringe issue that only one senator cares about' – this hill that Mike Lee is willing to die on?'' Here's where national politics is likely to intrude on the issue. Thune has committed to Trump and his advisors that he will produce a budget that contains items crucial to the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. In order to do that, he might be willing to cut a deal with Western senators to scale back Lee's land-sale provision. That compromise might look like a small-scale land-sale of clearly defined lands around fast-growing Western cities. It could expand on the successful Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, in which designated BLM lands around Las Vegas can be sold, revenue from which goes to buy higher-value public lands nearby. 'Maybe a compromise applies this to St. George and Cedar City [Utah] or Carson City [Nevada], or other places that can satisfy Lee' but also keep off the auction block cherished parcels of public lands, says Newberg. But Newberg says there's another line of defense that public-land users need to exercise. 'The action is not just in the Senate, it's in the House, too,' he says. 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