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A military contractor with a lineage going back to the notorious mercenary firm Blackwater will help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement track down a list of 1.5 million targeted immigrants across the country, according to records reviewed by The Intercept.
Federal procurement document show that on December 15, ICE inked a deal with Constellis Holdings to provide “skip tracing” services, tasking the company with hunting immigrants down and relaying their locations to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations wing for apprehension.
Under the terms of the Trump administration’s skip tracing initiative, first reported by The Intercept, contractors will receive monetary bounties in exchange for turning over the whereabouts of specified immigrants as quickly as possible, using whatever physical and digital surveillance tools they see fit.
Constellis was formed in 2014 through the merger of Academi, previously known as Blackwater, and Triple Canopy, a rival mercenary contractor. The combined companies and their subsidiaries have reaped billions from contracts for guarding foreign military installations, embassies, and domestic properties, along with work for the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. spy agencies.
Blackwater, founded in 1997 by Erik Prince, renamed itself multiple times over the years after it sparked international scandal for its violent work in Iraq. In 2007, Blackwater mercenaries massacred 14 civilians in Baghdad; several of its contractors serving prison sentences for the killings were pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.
Prince resigned as CEO of Blackwater in 2009, and Constellis says it has no relationship with him.
Though there are no ties between them, Constellis’s move to serve as a bounty hunter for ICE aligns with Prince’s reported interest in privatizing immigration enforcement.
The government has so far paid Constellis $1.5 million, with the potential for the total to grow to more than $113 million.
In February, Politico reported that Prince — a longtime and steadfast Trump ally — was among a group of military contractors who urged the federal government to employ a “Skip Tracing Team” and “bounty program which provides a cash reward” to incentivize the rapid tracking of immigrants. The proposal suggested that, due to a lack of federal manpower, ICE should deputize private citizens to help track down immigrants.
The Trump administration wound up hewing closely to the spirit of the proposal, earmarking over $1 billion for skip tracing work, much of it going to companies with military and intelligence contracting experience like Constellis. Federal records show the government has so far paid Constellis $1.5 million, with the potential for the total to grow to more than $113 million by the contract’s end in 2027.
Records do not provide any information about how Omniplex World Services, the Constellis subsidiary named in the contract, will track immigrants on ICE’s target list, stating only that the work “provides ICE with Skip Tracing services nationwide.”
Contract materials indicate that companies can use whatever techniques and technologies they believe will get the job done fastest.
Omniplex has provided investigative services like personnel background checks to DHS and the U.S. intelligence community for decades.
Constellis did not respond to a request for comment or questions about how it will locate migrants for ICE, but the company’s past experience in verifying details of an individual’s private life, including their internet activity, would be of clear utility for a skip tracing campaign.
According to program materials reviewed by The Intercept, bounty hunters hired by ICE will not be given any credentials identifying them as agents of the Department of Homeland Security as they surveil assigned targets’ homes and workplaces.
Domestic work could also be a crucial revenue bump for Constellis, which has reportedly seen revenues fall in recent years as the U.S. spent less guarding embassies and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Constellis, though, remains active in the Middle East, including through a contract to guard an American radar installation inside Israel.
The company has sought out business with dubious humanitarian implications. In 2024, Drop Site News reported Constellis was in talks to deploy mercenaries inside the Gaza Strip, and the company secured a $250 million construction contract at the U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, earlier this year.
