- ICE plans to move applications to Foundry while keeping its current visa-screening system operational.
- ICE awarded Steampunk $1,652,240.82 for maintenance on September 23, 2026.
- The Foundry migration has no announced schedule, contractor, cost or implementation plan.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement canceled a planned competition for continued support of its visa-screening system and intends to move its applications to Palantir Foundry. The existing platform will keep operating during the transition.
ICE awarded incumbent Steampunk Inc. a sole-source task order on September 23, 2026, valued at $1,652,240.82. The award gives the agency continued support while it works toward the replacement.
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The contract, task order 70CTD026FR0000055, covers maintenance of the current system. It does not provide a publicly announced completion date for the move to Foundry.
The system at the center of the decision is the Visa Security Program Tracking System. The platform supports visa-security reviews run by Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI.
The system supports reviews across three agencies
HSI uses the system to manage screening reviews, investigative findings, case notes and operational metrics. The work involves ICE, the Department of State and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The reviews can consider criminal, terrorism-related, immigration and other national-security concerns. The platform therefore supports an interagency screening process, rather than visa eligibility decisions alone.
ICE’s planned move changes the technology intended to host the applications used to conduct and manage those reviews. Leadership directed that new applications be developed and deployed on Foundry, while the current system remains operational during the transition.
That is a shift from a possible role in receiving selected data to hosting the applications used in the reviews. The decision concerns ICE’s technology and procurement; it does not change visa eligibility rules, visa fees, USCIS forms or adjudication standards.
A sole-source award keeps the existing system running
The September award gives Steampunk a 12-month base period, plus one 12-month option. If ICE exercises the option, the task order can support operation and maintenance for up to two years.
That arrangement creates an operating bridge as the agency pursues the Foundry-based applications. Existing VSPTS remains in use, and Steampunk is responsible for maintaining it under the task order.
The award value is substantially below the earlier estimate for a different procurement. That forecast covered a proposed five-year competition for continued support, not the sole-source maintenance task order ICE awarded in September.
ICE dropped a competition forecast at up to $10 million
An ICE acquisition forecast dated April 22 estimated the competitive support requirement at $5 million to $10 million over five years. The agency had planned to issue a solicitation in July 2026, but leadership canceled that competition.
ICE is separately conducting market research among contractors available through the Department of Homeland Security’s Scalable Ways to Implement Flexible Tasks, or SWIFT, contracting vehicle. The research concerns the migration effort, not the task order keeping the existing system running.
The two procurement tracks have different purposes: Steampunk’s award maintains VSPTS, while the agency’s intended Foundry deployment represents the modernization direction. ICE has not disclosed a separate migration contract’s value, schedule, awardee or implementation plan.
The transition has no announced schedule
As of October 10, 2026, the current system remains operational and Steampunk is maintaining it. ICE has selected Foundry as its intended modernization platform, but the migration’s contractor, cost, schedule and final implementation details remain unresolved publicly.
The agency also has not published the migration’s data architecture, privacy controls, review procedures or effects on individual applicants. Those details will shape how the new applications support the reviews once they are developed and deployed.
Until then, the immediate operational arrangement remains the existing system under the September task order. ICE’s planned transition does not itself announce a change to visa application procedures or processing timelines.
