In recent years, New Jersey’s pension fund has been forced to stop investing in companies that boycott Israel and those with financial ties to Russia and Iran.
Now, immigrant advocates want the state to take the same action with a company paid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and track potential targets for deportation.
The monthslong push for the New Jersey State Investment Council to stop investing state pension funds in Palantir Technologies boiled over again this week when the council met on Wednesday. The council, which sets policy for the multibillion-dollar pension fund covering state workers’ retirements, was met with dozens of activists who said it should dump the state’s roughly $140 million stake in Palantir.
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“We need you to do better and to find the investment that is going to perform well enough and keep our hands clean,” said Haliema Twam, civic engagement organizer at the Palestinian American Community Center. “That’s what we need you guys to do as a council.”
Assets in the pension fund totaled $79.7 billion at the end of 2025.
The Colorado-based Palantir builds software that combines information from government databases — like immigration records, visa requests, and biometric files — into centralized dashboards for use by immigration agents.
Palantir has signed several lucrative contracts with ICE, including a recent $30 million deal to provide the agency with software that aims to aid in the identification and apprehension of undocumented immigrants and track in “near real-time” those who leaves the country voluntarily, according to the Washington Post.
A spokesperson for the company did not respond to a request for comment.
Myles Drake Zhang told the New Jersey State Investment Council that Palantir and other companies that contract with the federal government are “literally eroding our civil rights and our liberties and the strength of our rights in the U.S. Constitution.” Zhang, noting that federal agents killed two people in Minneapolis this month, said the council should be worried about investing in companies that work with ICE.
He compared Palantir to companies in World War II-era Germany that profited from working with the Nazi regime.
“These were the companies that eroded the civil rights, the civil structures, and fundamentally, the human rights of people in Germany and across Europe. This is what we are seeing in the United States today, and this is what this investment committee is silent on,” Zhang said.
Dylan Washington said Palantir’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities contradicts state officials’ pledges to protect immigrant communities. He noted that the state’s Immigrant Trust Directive, an attorney general’s order from 2018, restricts when state and local police can help with immigration enforcement operations.
“Essentially, we don’t use state resources to advance federal policing, and the pension should not be any different,” he said. “Profiting off of discrimination is disgusting, and investing in Palantir is shameful.”
Several people also cited the council’s 2018 environmental, social, and governance policy, which calls on the council to consider “responsible investment practices.” The policy has been cited by activists when they call on the 15-member council to divest from specific companies or industries.
In 2024, environmentalists urged the council to cut ties with some of the largest publicly traded companies in the fossil fuel industry. Last April, former Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop said the state should stop investing in Tesla, owned by tech billionaire and Trump supporter Elon Musk.
And in September, more than 150 people marched in Newark to call on the state to divest from Palantir.
The council took no action Wednesday. Deepak Raj, its chair, said he appreciated the passion and advocacy of people who shared their views.
“We don’t have a response on that right away, but we will definitely think about what you’ve said,” he said.
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