U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has relied extensively on Microsoft’s cloud storage and artificial intelligence products while escalating its campaign of mass arrests and deportations in recent months, files obtained by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and The Guardian reveal.

ICE more than tripled the amount of data it holds on Microsoft servers between July 2025 and January 2026, at the same time as the agency’s crackdown on migrants broke new records and sparked mass protests across the United States. Whereas last July the agency was storing around 400 terabytes of data in Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, by the end of January that had risen to almost 1,400 terabytes — equivalent to approximately 490 million images.

The leaked documents do not specify the kinds of information stored by ICE on Microsoft servers, but they do indicate that the agency has used Azure to house large amounts of data, in addition to making use of AI tools that search and analyze images and videos.

ICE employs a powerful arsenal of surveillance technology, reportedly using facial recognition software, drones, phone location tracking, mobile spyware, and even tapping school cameras. The leaked documents show ICE is using Microsoft’s AI video analysis tools including Azure AI Video Indexer and Azure Vision, which enable customers to analyze images, read text, and detect certain words, faces, emotions, and objects in audio and video files.

The agency is also understood to have significantly expanded its access to Microsoft’s suite of productivity apps, which include document management tools and an AI chatbot. However, the files do not specify whether ICE’s vast surveillance trove is being stored on Azure, or whether the agency is using the cloud platform for other operations instead, such as running detention centers or coordinating deportation flights. 

ICE’s recent purchases of cloud and AI services from Microsoft were facilitated by a $75 billion budget increase last July, which made it the highest-funded law enforcement body in the United States. Over the past six months, the agency has also scaled up its consumption of Amazon products, which the Israeli army has also relied on extensively during its onslaught on Gaza.

Last year, +972, Local Call, and The Guardian revealed that Microsoft’s cloud servers were used to store masses of Israeli intelligence on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and Gaza, which the Israeli army used to plan deadly airstrikes and arrests. The revelations led Microsoft to revoke its cloud services from Unit 8200, Israel’s elite signals intelligence unit that had collected the surveillance data — the first known instance of a tech giant restricting Israel’s access to its services. 

“We do not provide technology to facilitate mass surveillance of civilians,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, said in September after the company terminated Unit 8200’s access to Azure. “We have applied this principle in every country around the world.”  

When +972, Local Call, and The Guardian asked whether this applies to U.S. federal agencies, a Microsoft spokesperson stated: “Microsoft does not comment on the operational use of our technology by specific customers. What we can say is that our approach is consistent globally: We prohibit the use of our technology for mass surveillance of civilian populations, require compliance with law and contract, and use internal review mechanisms to assess and address higher‑risk scenarios.”

A contested relationship

Microsoft’s relationship with ICE goes at least as far back as the first Trump administration, when the company’s contracts with the agency sparked outcry among Microsoft employees — particularly after ICE began separating migrant families detained along the U.S.-Mexico border.

At the time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emailed staff to note that the company’s “current cloud engagement with [ICE] is supporting legacy mail, calendar, messaging, and document management workload,” with no direct involvement in family separation.

According to Microsoft sources, several employees have in recent months raised concerns internally about ICE’s use of the company’s technology, including by filing internal ethics reports. In December, the company responded to one such report by stating that it does not have any current contracts that “support immigration enforcement.”

A month later, amid ICE’s lethal crackdown in Minnesota, the company sent a second response to employees that clarified its position further: It acknowledged that it has contracts with ICE and DHS, but said it “does not presently maintain AI services contracts tied specifically to enforcement activities.”

Yet the documents obtained by +972, Local Call, and The Guardian raise questions about whether Microsoft technology is facilitating an immigration crackdown by an agency accused of conducting unlawful operations and using excessive force on a large scale.

In response to an inquiry, a Microsoft spokesperson did not dispute the numbers presented in this article, and stated that the company has no visibility over the kind of data ICE is storing on Azure.

“As we’ve previously said, Microsoft provides cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools to DHS and ICE, delivered through our key partners,” the spokesperson said. “Microsoft policies and terms of service do not allow our technology to be used for the mass surveillance of civilians, and we do not believe ICE is engaged in such activity. 

“There currently are many public issues relating to immigration enforcement, and we believe Congress, the executive branch, and the courts have the opportunity to draw clear legal lines regarding the allowable use of emerging technologies by law enforcement.”

ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

Harry Davies of The Guardian contributed to this report.