This Is How They Come for People: The Bloodless Billionaire Problem

Peter Thiel, Palantir, J.D. Vance-and the quiet system designed to catch human beings before the public realizes it exists

This Is How They Come for People: The Bloodless Billionaire Problem

Peter Thiel, Palantir, J.D. Vance-and the quiet system designed to catch human beings before the public realizes it exists

The Jack Hopkins Now Newsletter #724: Friday, January 9th, 2026.

Picture this.

A government agent knocks a door off its hinges at 5:12 a.m.
A family is zip-tied on the living room floor.
A non-violent human being…someone whose “crime” is paperwork…status…or being in the wrong place when a database lights up…is hauled into a system that can disappear them for months.

Sometimes it ends in detention.
Sometimes it ends in a shooting.
Sometimes it ends in a death in custody.

And floating above all of it…quietly…profitably…“just providing tools”…is one of the most influential political financiers in America.

Peter Thiel.

Not because he wears a badge.
Not because he files the paperwork.
Not because he signs the arrest reports.

But because he helped build the digital nervous system that makes modern mass-enforcement efficient…
…and because he helped bankroll and elevate the politician now positioned close to the lever of federal power: J.D. Vance.

This is the part that should make your skin crawl:

When you connect the dots, you’re not looking at “a tech company doing contracts.”

You’re looking at a blueprint:

1. Fund the politician.

2. Seed the ideology.

3. Staff the ecosystem.

4. Sell the machinery to the state.

5. Normalize the outcomes as “process.”

And then act surprised…when the process…gets people hurt, and in far too many cases…killed.

What Thiel’s exact connections are (no fog, no vibe)

Let’s nail down the relationships cleanly.

1) Thiel ↔ Palantir

Peter Thiel is a co-founder of Palantir and has served as the company’s chairman (board leadership).

So…when Palantir becomes deeply embedded in federal enforcement workflows…this isn’t some random vendor relationship…happening in a vacuum. It’s a company Thiel helped create…and he has held senior governance influence over it.

2) Palantir ↔ ICE

Palantir has had a long-running relationship building and supporting ICE investigative and case-management tools…most notably Investigative Case Management (ICM) and related applications used by ICE components.

Reporting based on FOIA-released documents…describes how Palantir tools enabled ICE to pull together data….from multiple sources…and operationalize it in the field.

In 2025, ICE awarded Palantir a high-value expansion contract connected to a platform widely referred to as ImmigrationOS, built on top of ICM…to deepen…and extend those capabilities.

Translation: Palantir is not a side accessory. It is part of the backbone that makes large-scale identification…tracking…prioritization…and enforcement logistics work at speed.

3) Thiel ↔ Vance

Peter Thiel was not some casual donor to J.D. Vance. He was a major political backer.

Multiple outlets and campaign finance tracking cited in major reporting describe Thiel’s support for Vance’s 2022 Senate run as extraordinary…around $15 million routed through a super PAC supporting Vance.

That kind of money doesn’t just “help.”
It makes careers.

It moves candidates from “promising” to “inevitable.”
It buys the megaphone…the consultants…the airtime…the ground game…the legitimacy.

And it creates a permanent political fact: this person’s rise is tied to you.

4) Thiel ↔ the White House ecosystem

Thiel has been tied to Republican presidential politics for years, including formal involvement with the 2016 Trump transition apparatus (and the broader orbit of tech-aligned influence around staffing and policy).

More recently, mainstream reporting has described how Thiel-linked networks and allies have been close to the current administration’s tech-policy ecosystem.

Even if you ignore the gossip and stick to hard structure, the architecture is obvious:

• Thiel funds the politician.

• Thiel co-founds the company.

• The company sells the enforcement stack to the state.

That’s not conspiracy. That’s business and politics…openly.

“Equipment” is the wrong word. “Systems” is the right one.

Palantir is not selling rifles. It’s selling something more dangerous in the long-run:

A system that turns human beings into “entities,”
into “targets,”
into “risk scores,”
into “lifecycle management.”

It’s the spreadsheet version of a manhunt.

And when you build the state’s ability to find people faster than the public can defend them…legally…socially…politically…you change the balance of power.

That is the moral crux here.

You can’t hide behind “we’re just software” when your software is the central nervous system for a machine that ruins lives.

“Non-violent human beings”…and the violence that follows

Let’s keep this factual and grounded.

ICE detention has been widely criticized for systemic failures…including repeated findings from government oversight inspections and watchdog reporting about conditions…medical care…and compliance gaps.

And in the most recent reporting, the enforcement surge has been linked to an increase in use-of-force incidents…including multiple shootings…injuries…and deaths in encounters involving federal immigration agents.

Separate reporting documents that 2025 saw a high number of deaths in ICE custody…with detailed case-by-case accounting and concerns about overcrowding and care failures.

Now, be precise about what we can and can’t claim:

• Palantir did not pull the trigger.

• Palantir did not staff the detention center.

• Palantir did not write the use-of-force policy.

But Palantir’s tools can help decide who gets found…how fast…how broadly…and how relentlessly.

That matters because the enforcement machine isn’t one moment of violence…it’s a pipeline. Data → targeting → capture → detention → removal.

When the pipeline scales up…the harm scales up.

And when the harm scales up…people get hurt. People die.

The con: “Complete immunity” and “above the law”

You’ve already seen the rhetorical play:
“They’re federal officers, they have complete immunity.”

That claim is politically useful…whether or not it’s legally true…because it conditions the public to accept a future where accountability is treated as sabotage.

The trick is always the same:

1. Say it confidently.

2. Say it repeatedly.

3. Shame anyone who questions it.

4. Act as if accountability itself is treason.

And then…after the public is softened…you test how much rule-breaking…you can get away with.

That is how democracies are converted into enforcement states: not with a single announcement…but with a thousand small “what are you going to do about it?” moments.

Thiel’s role in the story you’re living

Let’s speak plainly.

Peter Thiel is not just “a donor.”
And Palantir is not just “a vendor.”

This is the marriage of money + ideology + technical capacity + state power.

Thiel’s money…helps put the politician near the levers.
His company…helps build the levers themselves.

So…when the government expands tracking…targeting…and enforcement against non-violent people…and it’s done with the help of systems built by the company Thiel co-founded… while a Thiel-backed political figure rises into national power…

You don’t need to imagine a smoky room.
You don’t need to allege a secret order.

You just need eyes.

The real scandal is the normalization

The most dangerous thing happening right now is not a single contract.

It’s the normalization of this logic:

• “If you’re undocumented…you’re fair game for total surveillance.”

• “If you’re adjacent to someone undocumented…you’re data, too.”

• “If you protest…you may be tagged as an interference problem.”

• “If enforcement gets violent…that’s the cost of doing business.”

• “If people die in custody…it’s unfortunate…but procedural.”

That is the language of a machine that wants to run without moral friction.

And Thiel’s world…tech-utopian on the surface…hard-edged power politics underneath…specializes in machines that reduce messy human ethics into “efficiency.”

What you can say, clearly, without overreaching

Here is the cleanest way to frame it without giving anyone an escape hatch:

• Thiel co-founded Palantir and has been a senior figure in its governance.

• Palantir has built and supported ICE investigative/case-management systems for years, with FOIA-based reporting showing deep integration into operations.

• ICE expanded this relationship with a significant ImmigrationOS-related contract that builds on Palantir’s ICM platform.

• Thiel was a major financial backer of J.D. Vance’s political rise via a huge super PAC contribution in 2022.

• Recent reporting links the current enforcement surge to increased detentions, shootings, injuries, and deaths in custody…raising the moral stakes of any “efficiency” tools that scale enforcement.

That’s the indictment.

Not that Thiel personally committed each abuse…
but that he financed and built the ecosystem that makes the abuses scalable…deniable… and repeatable.

The call nobody wants to make out loud

Here it is anyway:

If you are horrified by state tracking and state violence against non-violent people… you cannot keep treating the tech financiers and vendors as neutral bystanders.

The badges are only half the story.

The other half is:

• the donors

• the contractors

• the platforms

• the data pipelines

• the people who profit when the net widens

And until the public starts applying pressure there…hard…firm…sustained pressure…this machine will keep getting upgrades.

Faster ingestion.
Better targeting.
More “real-time.”
More “automation.”
More “lifecycle.”

Less…humanity.

#HoldFast
Back soon,

-Jack

Jack Hopkins

Resources

Guardian investigation on Palantir + ICE document trove (FOIA-based)

Wired reporting on ICE’s $30M award for “ImmigrationOS” expansion

American Immigration Council explainer on ImmigrationOS and Palantir’s role

DHS Office of Inspector General summary of unannounced ICE facility inspections (FY2020–FY2023)

DHS Office of Homeland Security Statistics: ICE detentions data

CBS News on Thiel’s backing of Vance (including the super PAC funding scale)

Financial Times on Thiel’s role in Vance’s rise and the “Thielverse” influence network

Recent reporting on use-of-force incidents involving immigration agents (shootings)

Guardian case-by-case accounting of deaths in ICE custody in 2025