ICE Paid $12 Million to Track Immigrants. Edge Ops LLC Used Stock Photo for Lead Scientist

(UNITED STATES) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement awarded $12.2 million to Edge Ops LLC for a one-year contract tied to Project SAFE HAVEN, a surveillance tool designed to map immigrants’ “patterns of life” through persistent passive data collection, real-time location tracking, and behavioral analysis.

The contract runs from May 1, 2026, through April 30, 2027, and targets the Homeland Security Task Force National Coordination Center. It focuses on categories that include “extremists” and “illegal re-entrants.”

Project SAFE HAVEN uses a question-based AI interface to build “target profiles” by linking data from Wi-Fi connections, cell phones, and smartwatches. The system categorizes individuals or groups by attributes including gender, country of origin, and alleged affiliations with gangs or cartels.

Edge Ops LLC advertises the system as transforming “the way we identify, locate, and map illegal migrants.” ICE paid for the tool even as the company’s public-facing materials raised questions about how it presented its own staff and track record.

The company’s website features a Getty Images stock photo for its “lead scientist,” showing a generic laboratory setting rather than an actual employee. The image sits alongside a contract that gives Edge Ops a central role in tracking immigrants for ICE.

Edge Ops LLC is led by Jennifer Piccerillo, a former Raytheon executive, and Robert Piccerillo, a former Department of Defense employee. Their company secured the contract for Project SAFE HAVEN as ICE sought technology that could link devices, movement, and behavioral data into a single operational picture.

That picture, as described in the contract summary, centers on habitual locations, routes, and potential threats. The tool maps where people go, how they move, and which devices travel with them over time.

Project SAFE HAVEN does that through persistent passive collection rather than a one-off lookup. Real-time location tracking and behavioral analysis sit at the core of the system, which ICE hired to support operations connected to immigrant enforcement.

Questions about Edge Ops extend beyond the stock image. InventHelp client reviews tied to the company’s web presence appear fabricated, with multiple sites carrying praise that does not connect to Edge Ops operations.

Those sites include inventhelp.com/reviews/, american-inventor.com/inventhelp-reviews, and YouTube testimonials such as “InventHelp Customer Reviews & Testimonials.” They promote scripted praise including, “They are extremely knowledgeable and professional and make a complex field easy.”

Tangiblewords.com/client-reviews and similar pages show unrelated positive endorsements that mimic legitimate testimonials. The endorsements do not describe ICE work, immigrant tracking, Project SAFE HAVEN, or Edge Ops LLC’s operations.

Edge Ops LLC did not respond to comment requests. ICE did not respond to comment requests.

The contract places Edge Ops inside a sensitive part of federal enforcement at a time when ICE continues to expand its use of data-driven systems. In this case, the agency did not hire the company for a narrow records search or a limited pilot; it signed a one-year contract worth $12.2 million for a platform built to identify, locate, and map people through device-linked surveillance.

Project SAFE HAVEN’s stated scope reaches beyond locating a single person. It builds “target profiles” for individuals or groups and sorts them through identity and association markers, including gender, country of origin, and alleged gang or cartel links.

That design gives the system a broad analytical role. A question-based AI interface allows users to query the data and assemble profiles from signals gathered across Wi-Fi, cell phones, and smartwatches.

The language in the contract summary shows how ICE intends to use the technology. It aims to identify habitual locations, travel routes, and “patterns of life,” a term often used for tracking where a person lives, works, moves, and returns over time.

Within Project SAFE HAVEN, that method is directed at populations ICE and the Homeland Security Task Force National Coordination Center classify as enforcement targets, including “extremists” and “illegal re-entrants.” The contract summary ties those categories directly to the system’s surveillance and behavioral analysis functions.

Edge Ops presented itself online as a company with scientific expertise and satisfied clients. Its website’s use of a Getty Images stock photo for the “lead scientist,” however, showed a generic lab scene instead of an identifiable employee, while the client praise linked to InventHelp-related pages and unrelated endorsements.

Those details sit awkwardly beside a contract involving real-time location tracking and AI analysis for ICE. The company won federal work for Project SAFE HAVEN even though its public promotional material included a stock image for a senior scientific role and testimonials disconnected from the services named in the contract.

Jennifer Piccerillo and Robert Piccerillo lead Edge Ops with backgrounds tied to defense and government work. Jennifer Piccerillo previously worked as a Raytheon executive, and Robert Piccerillo is a former Department of Defense employee.

ICE’s decision gives their firm responsibility for a system that combines passive data collection with behavioral analysis to map movement and identify possible threats. The contract runs through April 30, 2027, locking in a year of work on Project SAFE HAVEN after a start date of May 1, 2026.

No public response came from either side after questions about the contract and the company’s website. Edge Ops did not answer comment requests, and ICE also did not respond.

What remains on the record is a federal payment of $12.2 million, a surveillance platform called Project SAFE HAVEN, and a contractor whose website paired a stock-photo “lead scientist” with reviews that appear unrelated to the work ICE hired it to perform.