Particle.news
Download on the App Store

15 Arrested After Passover Seder Protest Occupies Palantir’s Manhattan Lobby

City oversight pressure grew with the comptroller requesting an independent human-rights review of Palantir’s DHS work.

Overview

  • Protesters who held a Passover “Seder in the Streets” at Union Square on Monday later marched to Palantir’s Chelsea headquarters at 45 West 18th Street.
  • Dozens staged a sit-in in the lobby and refused to leave until the firm cut federal ties, which ended with 15 arrests and court summons at the NYPD’s 7th Precinct.
  • New York City Comptroller Mark Levine asked Palantir for an independent third-party human-rights risk assessment of its work with the Department of Homeland Security and sought details on its ICE contract.
  • Reporting describes Palantir as a government data firm whose tools help ICE identify and track immigrants, including a $30 million ImmigrationOS contract that tracks self-deportations and visa overstays.
  • Palantir has not announced any change to its federal agreements, but the arrests and the comptroller’s request increased public and political pressure on the company.