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By The Numbers — Federal Data Fusion

ICE Just Needs Palantir and a Login

Treat this as an infrastructure story, not a scandal story: map the data-sharing agreements and vendor contracts that made this technically trivial, tracing the precondition rather than the single incident.
July 18, 2026
The Numbers Desk

Immigration agents can search your health records on a two-month pass they can renew forever. Citizens wait seven weeks just to ask for their own records—and have a one in ten chance of actually getting them.

ENTRIES006
SOURCES006
MARKETS002
POLLS002
One-Way Mirror
001
Data points the government keeps on the average American
314
002
Number of states suing to stop deportation agents from pulling Medicaid records
22
Their Speed, Your Wait
003
How long deportation agents get to search Medicaid records — renewable forever
2months
004
Average wait for a Freedom of Information Act requisition to be processed
48.96days
Less Information
005
Share of records requests the government fully granted in 2025
9.5%
006
Share of records requests the government fully granted in 2010
Source: Brechner
38%
Readers & Markets
What happens next, in numbers.
2 open markets tied to this story, with $59K in volume on the line — and 2 polls measuring where opinion sits. Prices and vote shares update in real time.
Open Markets
02 contracts
Will DOGE/Trump manage to shut down at least 100 Federal agencies by 2029?
Source: Manifold
Yes10¢
No90¢
PlatformManifold
7d 0pp
Volume$3K
StakesPlay money
Will the Republican Party win a majority in the United States House of Representatives in the 2026 general election?
Yes35¢
No65¢
PlatformForecastTrader
7d 0pp
Volume$56K
StakesReal money
Reader Polls
02 surveys
ICE's Actions in Enforcing Immigration Laws Have Gone Too Far, Not Gone Far Enough, or Are About Right
Issue Poll
Gone Too Far
65%
About Right
22%
Not Gone Far Enough
12%
Is It Acceptable for People to Record Video of Immigration Officers While They Make Arrests?
Issue Poll
Support
74%
Oppose
25%
Originating headlines: NPR; Wired.