US President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff and homeland security advisor, known for shaping the administration's stringent immigration policies, owns up to a £183,747 ($250,000) stake in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor, Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR), according to a recent financial disclosure.
Experts believe that Miller's involvement in ICE and his stake in Palantir raise serious concerns of conflict of interest.
Although Palantir is among the Wall Street stars as shares rose over 492% in the past year, the company has attracted concerns regarding privacy impacts from its access to government databases. The company has enabled ICE to source critical information to identify immigrants as targets for arrest, detention, and deportation. The US agency is heavily tapping into Palantir's mission-critical services to overhaul its data systems for 'near real-time visibility into instances of self-deportation' and to inform how ICE agents and other agency resources are used.
In April, Palantir secured nearly a £22 million ($30 million) contract from ICE to upgrade its immigration enforcement tools, prioritising tracking visa overstays and self-deportations through the ImmigrationOS system. Simultaneously, Palantir revealed during a May investor presentation that its US government revenue in Q1 jumped 45% year-over-year.
According to Don Fox, former general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics, Miller could 'easily become involved in policy matters that have a direct and predictable impact on Palantir.'
Fox said that Miller is known for getting deeply involved in immigration enforcement, which increased the conflict-of-interest concern. For instance, Miller could be in a meeting with US Department of Homeland Security officials about upgrading the agency's data analytics capabilities, knowing that Palantir would be the beneficiary.
Furthermore, the federal government's chief information officer, Gregory Barbaccia, who happens to be a former Palantir employee, also owns a stake in the technology company. Another 10 White House staffers revealed owning Palantir shares, with one of them, Kara Frederick, a senior policy advisor to Miller, having up to a £73,499 ($100,000) stake in the company.
Fox is worried that the nature of Miller's work and his investment could pose a major conflict of interest and said it would be best for him to divest from any individual stocks.
'You got to get out of pretty much anything,' except for investments like mutual funds, index funds, or Treasuries, Fox added. 'You don't want to be in a position to say, "Mr. President, I'm sorry. I can't work on that because I have a conflict."'
Former federal attorney told the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) that if Miller hasn't stepped over the line, 'he's just on the verge of it.'
'I just don't think anybody would be comfortable with him keeping this stock,' Canter noted.
While experts worry about the risks to the privacy of American citizens if sensitive federal data from across government agencies are channelled through Palantir systems, a DHS spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, told POGO that these concerns were very silly and that Palantir has had contracts with the federal government for over 14 years.
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