Throughout the entire decade or so I've been writing about the migrant carceral complex, I've tried to help people understand apparent contradiction this vast federal apparatus represents. Hunting down and caging migrants, particularly on the scale the Trump regime is attempting to do, is a mind-fuckingly expensive operation that provides literally no benefit whatsoever to the vaunted "America taxpayer" (so, you) and yet we do it anyway - why? Well part of it is certainly racism and white nationalism, but the reality is that our vast incarceration and deportation machine is actually extremely profitable for some highly influential people; particularly folks that own or invest in private prison companies. How profitable? Well a recent ACLU report reveals that the Trump regime has put $45 billion (with a b) up for grabs in contracts to facilitate a massive expansion of the migrant carceral complex and their white nationalist scheme to bleach America's demographics by (lawless) force.

https://truthout.org/articles/aclu-exposes-trump-admins-plan-for-massive-expansion-of-ice-jail-system/

ACLU Exposes Trump Admin’s Plan for Massive Expansion of ICE Jail System

"The documents, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, “signal a massive expansion of ICE detention capacity — including at facilities notorious for misconduct and abuse — which echo reports earlier this week that the Trump administration has sought proposals for up to $45 billion to expand immigrant detention,” ACLU said.

“The discovery also comes on the heels of a ‘strategic sourcing vehicle‘ released by ICE earlier this month, which called for government contractors to submit proposals for immigration detention and related services,” the group added."

The truth here is that there are billions of dollars swimming around in the migrant carceral complex whether the facilities are private or publicly controlled; but Trump's close relationship with donors and lobbyists from the private prison industry ensures that he's going to turn out maximum value for *his* investors - who are some of the worst human beings on earth, quite frankly. This article in particular singles out three companies (Geo Group, CoreCivic, and Management Training Corporation) that are soliciting big contracts to make the regime's nativist dreams of an upgraded national gulag system for brown people a reality; and the free market is rewarding them in anticipation of the regime's mass deportation agenda:

"The documents received provide important details regarding what we have long feared — a massive expansion of ICE detention facilities nationwide in an effort to further the Trump administration’s dystopian plans to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones,” said Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project.

“This expansion is a disastrous waste of billions of taxpayer dollars that will only line the coffers of the private prison industry,” Cho added.

Indeed, GEO shares have nearly doubled in value since Trump’s election, while CoreCivic stock is up 57% over the same period."

Of course, there are other benefits to expanding a massive private prison complex for migrants for a white nationalist regime bent on creating an ethno-state besides appeasing donors. As the article notes, privately run ICE facilities are not subject to state regulation or inspection; which is both why the reported levels of abuse are so much higher than in publicly run prison facilities, and why they're the preferred destination to send migrants for a cracker fascist regime that has more or less openly admitted "the cruelty, is the point."

Look, as an abolitionist it's not lost on me that all prisons are bad no matter who is running them. But the reality here is that most Americans don't really understand what the migrant carceral complex actually is, and without that realization it's easier for them to fall into the trap of casually believing this monstrous bullshit serves the public interest somehow. The migrant carceral complex is at the end of the day a business, in which billions of dollars in public funds are distributed to rich people for the privilege of having them cage and torture brown people as part of a (shockingly bipartisan) nativist agenda. You don't get healthcare, your kids don't get lunch at school, and your grandma is eating cat food because the wise people running our society would rather make blood ticks running prison companies fat and happy, to appease racists in the body politic. Yeah, it's certainly worse under a white nationalist Trump regime, but the reality is they're just expanding this system in anticipation of conducting mass deportations (which are legally recognized as a crime against humanity by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court). Trump didn't build the migrant carceral complex; it was handed to him by generations of politicians before him who laid the roads he's running towards a genocide on, as we speak.

#Fascism #ICE #Trump #DHS #MigrantRights #MigrantCarceralComplex #PrivatePrisons

I've spent much of the past eight and a half years avoiding unproductive arguments with people who insist that "you can't compare Trumpism to Hitler and the Nazis" despite knowing that those people rarely, if ever, have much understanding of what made the Nazis the definitive genocidal fascist movement in human history. At some point however, you have to stop relying on Godwin's Law to avoid naming the beast when the Trump administration continues to actively borrow policies and methods of operation from the actual Nazi Party; particularly when those policies ended in the literal fucking Holocaust last time.

To understand what I'm talking about, let's take a look at what Trump's Gestapo (ICE) Director had to say at a recent "border security" conference about his hopes to logistically optimize the process of snatching up migrants for deportation in the streets of America:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/todd-lyons-ice-amazon-prime

Trump's ICE Chief Craves Deportation Process Like Amazon Prime, 'But With Human Beings'

"While speaking a 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons outlined a chilling vision for how deportations in the United States ought to be carried out: with the swift efficiency of Amazon Prime.

"We need to get better at treating this like a business," said Lyons, explaining that he wants to see a deportation process that is "like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings." His comments citing the e-commerce giant's subscription servicewere first reported by the Arizona Mirror.

"This is a chilling example of drawing inspiration from Nazi Germany to deploy logistics for mass deportation and ethnic cleansing," wrote journalist Luis Feliz Leon in response to Lyons' statement."

Although this article doesn't mention it, other sources online (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/ice-todd-lyons-deporation-amazon) have revealed that part of what Lyons is talking about here is a plan to "implement a system of trucks that rounds up immigrants for deportation in a system similar to how Amazon delivers packages around the US."

First of all, this is nightmare dystopian fascist shit that absolutely mirrors the process of rounding up Jewish people in Nazi Germany. Additionally Lyons is implying that the US government intends to deport so many people, that it would make sense logistically, to requisition a fleet of trucks for that ongoing purpose. Finally, don't sleep on the fact that Lyons is talking about running ICE like a business and modeling its operations on Amazon, because for the people who own or invest in a private prison sector getting filthy stinking rich on anti-migrant policies and ICE detention contracts, this absolutely is a business; it might be costing the American taxpayer public money, but it's making a whole lot of nazis huge bank.

Ultimately however, I think the most important part of the story is what Common Dreams alluded to in its short article above; the employment of the government's extensive logistical abilities to streamline and optimize the mass deportation process and speed up the establishment of a white nationalist ethnostate, is more or less how the Nazis ultimately facilitated the Holocaust using the punch card computing system IBM helped them build for that purpose. Speaking frankly, what separates the Nazis and the Holocaust from other eliminationist campaigns by fascist governments in human history is the creation of an optimized system to apprehend, detain, and eventually exterminate whole classes of people; this was systemic fascist murder, and it ended in the deaths of millions of people, most notably but not exclusively over six million Jewish people from all over Europe.

If you look at the overarching theme of the Trump regime's employment of AI technology, mass surveillance, and the integration of data from all government sources into ICE databases, it becomes very clear that we're looking at systemic, logistically organized fascist repression that sure looks an awful lot like the Nazis under Hitler. You might say to me that I can't prove the administration is working itself towards an eliminationist program targeting migrants, but I'd respond by reminding you that mass deportations have historically been part of the process of genocide, bullets in the head are cheaper than airplane flights, and the very same systemic fascism this regime is now admitting is necessary for its mass deportations to function, can just as easily be purposed for mass executions when the time comes.

#Fascism #ICE #DHS #ToddLyons #Trump #Genocide #NaziParty #MassDeportations #MigrantRights #MigrantCarceralComplex #EthnoNationalism #Eliminationism #WhiteNationalism #Logistics #SystemicFascism

One of the most important necessary illusions to maintain (largely bipartisan) public support for the American war on migrants, is the idea that the fascist repression structures used to target brown noncitizens are only been used on "bad hombre" criminals who have snuck across the border for nefarious purposes. Bizarrely, this delusion remains popular with a US public that would rather not see how the sausage is made, even as the Trump regime actively targets migrant communities in America who have been granted state protection, are seeking asylum, and are otherwise "playing by the rules" that supposedly justifies brutalizing anyone who isn't following "the process" to enter and reside in the United States.

For example, since Trump took office back on January 20th, 2025, the regime has revoked the protected status and demanded the "self-deportation" of hundreds of thousands of law abiding immigrants registered with and monitored by government programs designed to curb illegal entry into the United States by offering a legal pathway to residency; including many people who are residing in America precisely because US foreign policy and exploitation has rendered their countries of origin objectively unsafe to return to. These folks aren't drug smugglers, or coyotes running undocumented people across the border, they are for all intents and purposes refugees created by US imperialist policy and they are precisely the kind of migrants apologists for our fascist deportation regime claim won't be targeted - a fact that has changed drastically under the tender mercies of Trump's unofficial Secretary for White Nationalist Shit, Stephen Miller.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-cbp-one-trump-biden-border-95b89a3bb0859ec8b6a39f2eef78f672

Trump’s DHS revokes legal status for migrants who entered the US on Biden-era CBP One app

"CBP One was a cornerstone of the Biden administration’s strategy to create and expand legal pathways to enter the United States in an attempt to discourage illegal border crossings. By the end of December, 936,500 people had been allowed to enter with CBP One appointments at border crossings with Mexico. President Donald Trump ended CBP One for new entrants on his first day in office, stranding thousands in Mexico who had appointments into early February.

Trump has ended and revoked temporary status for many who benefited under Biden’s policies. Homeland Security said Monday that Biden’s use of parole authority — more than any president since it was created in 1952 — “further fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history.”

Homeland Security said last month that it was revoking another form of parole for 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who flew to the country at their own expense with a financial sponsor. It ends April 24.

The Trump administration has also announced an end to Temporary Protected Status for 600,000 Venezuelans and about 500,00 Haitians, though a federal judge temporarily put that on hold, including for about 350,000 Venezuelans who had been scheduled to lose TPS on Monday. TPS is granted in 18-month increments to people already in the U.S. whose countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife."

Ultimately I chose this story to demonstrate how week after week, the Trump regime is quietly enacting an immigration policy designed to produce and entrench an American white ethnostate, and by and large this news doesn't really penetrate the public consciousness. When you combine the figures provided in this article alone, we're talking about the rapid expulsion of almost two million people who are objectively *not* the bloodthirsty "illegal" predators the regime claims these policies are designed to stop; newsflash, hardcore narco-terrorists don't register with the US government via phone app when they arrive in America. They are however nonwhite people Stephen Miller can parade in front of an extremely racist American public in a sort of fascist theater show designed to assure crackers that the government is "keeping them safe" from people with the wrong skin tone. Furthermore, despite what the Trump regime would have you believe about deterrence, anyone who has studied the history of US immigration laws can tell you that shutting off the legal pathways for, again, what amount to refugees of US imperialist policy, to enter and remain in the United States will simply *increase* the number of undocumented people who sneak into the country illegally. The conditions that caused them to flee to America aren't going to change, migrants just aren't going to register with the US government anymore because it means inviting DHS and ICE to pick them off as low hanging fruit to make the white nationalist regime's quotas.

#Fascism #Trump #StephenMiller #Migrants #Immigration #DHS #MigrantCarceralComplex #ICE #WhiteNationalism #Ethnostate #WhiteSupremacy #Imperialism #BorderImperialism

On March 17th, DHS agents wearing face masks abducted Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar, after informing him that his visa had been revoked by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

1) https://truthout.org/articles/dhs-abducts-georgetown-postdoctoral-researcher-over-pro-palestine-views/

DHS Abducts Georgetown Postdoctoral Researcher Over Pro-Palestine Views

"Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen and research fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (which is part of the school’s Foreign Service program), was detained on Monday night outside of his home in Arlington, Virginia. The immigration officials, who wore face coverings, identified themselves as being Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and told Suri that his J-1 visa was being revoked at the behest of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on the social media site X."

It should be noted that the Trump regime has since tried to explain away Suri's detention by pointing out that his father-in-law is a former advisor to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. That reasoning doesn't compute however because Yousef (the father-in-law) left the Gaza government in 2010 and founded a conflict resolution center, and neither Suri not his wife, a US citizen of Palestinian descent have done anything wrong. While Suri has spoken out about the genocide in Gaza, he is not a political activist, and as "a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza." Despite this, Suri remains in ICE detention under reportedly horrible conditions in Texas.

2) https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/badar_khan_suri_georgetown_nader_hashemi

Georgetown Scholar Badar Khan Suri Remains in Immigration Jail After Masked Agents Snatched Him in D.C.

"Over the next 72 hours, Suri was transferred to multiple immigration detention centers. He’s currently jailed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children. Suri’s arrest came just days after federal agents apprehended Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who’s being jailed at a different ICE detention center in Louisiana. Both are being detained under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which gives the U.S. secretary of state authority to begin deportation proceedings against any noncitizen deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests — even a green card holder, like Mahmoud Khalil is. On Thursday, a federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Suri while he fights his case.

DHS has accused Suri of, quote, “spreading Hamas propaganda” and claimed Suri has, quote, “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist,” without providing any evidence. Suri’s legal team says he’s being targeted for his political views and free speech, and pointed to an aggressive doxxing and smearing campaign by pro-Israel groups targeting Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh."

3) https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/us/mahmoud-khalil-badar-khan-suri/index.html

A glimpse at complaints inside Louisiana and Texas ICE detention centers holding Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri

"Five-point shackles over open wounds. Foul-smelling milk provided in solitary confinement. Feces left in shower cells.

These incidents and others were reported to the ACLU and other legal aid providers between 2022 and 2024 by detainees at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center – where Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, facing possible deportation, has been locked up for two weeks. About 370 miles away, at a different facility in Texas, Georgetown University research fellow Badar Khan Suri faces a similar fate following a Trump administration order to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.

Khan Suri was transferred Friday from the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana – where his lawyers said he was unable to get any contact with the outside world – to the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas.

“ICE detention centers are … effectively black boxes. They are deliberately placed in remote areas where they are out of sight from the public and difficult for families and legal representation to visit,” said Jeff Migliozzi, communications director with Freedom for Immigrants, a national advocacy group monitoring civil rights issues in immigration detention."

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #DHS #MigrantCarceralComplex #BadarKhanSuri #Prairieland #Texas #Alexandria #Louisiana #Palestine #CivilRights #Genocide #Gaza #Rubio

And just what does that rapid expansion of the fascist police state look like even in the infancy of the Trump administration? As this March 9th piece published on Truthout notes, it's already a fascist nightmare where migrants are kept in inhumane conditions and their human rights are routinely violated in violent, even lethal ways - and Downmarket Mussolini's regime is only getting started:

https://truthout.org/articles/as-mass-incarceration-of-immigrants-rises-detention-centers-eye-new-contracts/

As Mass Incarceration of Immigrants Rises, Detention Centers Eye New Contracts

"That crisis is set to grow as detention expansion continues. Last week, ICE signed a $1 billion, 15-year contract with the private prison company GEO Group to reopen an empty jailhouse in Newark to incarcerate up to 1,000 immigration prisoners at a time, the first large detention expansion under Trump’s crackdown.

GEO Group pushed hard for the contract and sued New Jersey in 2024 to successfully overturn a state law originally supported by racial justice activists that banned private companies from contracting with ICE to house immigrants. Now, GEO Group reportedly has plans to increase the facility’s capacity to incarcerate people and potentially generate an additional $500 to $600 million in annual profit. The company has faced multiple lawsuits after immigrants were subjected to what attorneys describe as underpaid and forced labor. Most recently, a federal court upheld a ruling requiring GEO Group to pay $23 million in damages after the company paid ICE detainees $1 a day for labor at a detention center in Tacoma, Washington."

Like most honest reporting about America's horrifying migrant carceral complex, this is a hard story to read for folks who aren't already familiar with the cruelty, depravity, and casual disregard for human life with which Americans conduct their one-sided war on migrants. The testimony from formerly-incarcerated individuals provided in just this single story should be enough for most people to understand that this has nothing to do with so-called responsible policing, or keeping anyone safe, while the dollar figures involved make it clear that broadly speaking the US government is heavily-funding a whole lot of odious people in the business of torturing migrants for profit. Furthermore, as Trump works to expand the hunting, detention, and deportation of migrants, the piles of money, flow of human rights violations, and atrocities committed in the name of protecting Americans from the lady who works at your local nail salon, will only expand correspondingly.

#Fascism #PoliceState #Trump #MigrantRights #MassDeportations #ICE #PrivatePrisons #MigrantCarceralComplex