An increase in ICE’s budget has enabled the organization to ensure it doesn’t run out of cloud storage.
In addition to finding new, technologically advanced ways to conduct its investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has also increased its dependence on the Microsoft cloud platform.
ICE has increased the amount of data it stores on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform by 3 times in the last 6 months of 2025, according to documents acquired by the Guardian.
Besides storage, the organization also used other tools available on the platform, including AI-powered tools, to search and analyze the uploaded data. The obtained information also hints that the organization has been running its own systems on these servers.
The revealed documents suggest that Microsoft could be aiding the organization that came into prominence over the last year for its controversial immigration operations, including two incidents when two people, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were shot by the ICE agents.
Last year, ICE was given a $75 billion budget increase, which it used to gain access to surveillance technology, including facial recognition apps, location-tracking databases, and spyware.
It was previously reported that the organization is also seeking insights into the advertising industry to see how it collects and analyzes data.
In addition to using this technology, the organization also appeared to invest in cloud computing. Microsoft and Amazon, whose services ICE has used, have been involved in deals worth tens of millions of dollars.
The files reveal that ICE has stored 1,400 terabytes of data (equivalent to 490 million images) in Azure.
While it’s known what kind of information ICE stores on Microsoft servers, it did use Azure’s Blob Storage, which is known to provide “scalable, cost-efficient” storage solution for vast amounts of data, and AI tools for photo and text analysis and translation.
The organization also uses Azure’s virtual machines for remote cloud access, as well as tools for document management and an AI assistant.
The documents don’t specify whether these Azure services are used to analyze data gathered from surveillance tools or to handle other organizational tasks.
A Microsoft spokesperson told The Guardian that, under the company’s terms and services, its technology can’t be used for mass surveillance, and that it doesn’t believe the agency is using Microsoft services for that purpose.
Nevertheless, the situation has already prompted some protests against ICE and big tech companies that support the organization in some way.
Besides protests, users have already looked for ways to combat ICE by using apps, such as ICEBlock, which informs users of nearby ICE activity, or by visiting ICEList, a website that gathers information about ICE agents.
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