Boy, you know things are topsy-turvy when #RandPaul is the voice of reason! smh

"Paul calls Mullin a liar with anger management problems who lacks the temperament to lead the troubled Homeland Security Department that is at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

" 'Tell it to the world why you believe I deserved to be assaulted,' Paul said on Wednesday as he gaveled the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to order.

" 'Explain to the American people why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and border patrol agents.' "

Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/rand-paul-markwayne-mullin-dhs-confirmation-hearing-6c05a260b9f2fa4d730749213b3f4663?

#USPol #MarkWayneMullin #AbolishICE #AbolishDHS #ICESucks #DefundCBP

😡 FFS! So, now the city has decided to close the shelter?!! Will they open it in a more central location? Or just let unhoused folks freeze to death!!! Way to go, #Maine's biggest city!!! Oh, and the asylum seekers are too afraid to stay there! #FuckICE!!!

'Numbers have certainly declined': #PortlandME to close shelter for #AsylumSeekers [and homeless people who need shelter during freezing temperatures]

by Max Williams, WGME
Wed, March 18, 2026

Excerpt: "The city also needs to develop a gameplan for a #WarmingShelter by next winter, as this location served as the city’s only #OvernightShelter.

"Allicia Santamore has been living on the streets of Portland for eight years and considers the shelter to be a lifeline.

" 'The warming shelter is awesome for people to sit when its six o'clock in the morning and you got no place to go. You can't stay in your tent no more, it’s f------ freezing,' Santamore said.

"The city says they are talking with Maine DHHS about what to do, but they say it all comes down to funding."

Full article:
https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-housing-crisis-numbers-have-certainly-declined-portland-to-close-shelter-for-asylum-seekers-immigration-warming-homelessness

cc: @bob , @sr_rss

#Homeless #MainePol #Houseless #ICESucks #DefundICE

How a Tiny, Inexperienced Firm Landed a $1.3 Billion #Detention Deal To hold 5,000 human beings.

by Samantha Michaels, November+December 2025 Issue

Excerpt: "When the Trump administration awarded a $1.26 billion contract this summer to build and operate a new tent city #detention center in #Texas, it made headlines, and not just because the facility, located at the #FortBliss Army base, was expected to be the biggest of its kind in the country. The company that won the job, #AcquisitionLogistics, was so small it operated out of a single-family home in #RichmondVA. Almost nobody had heard of it. 'A random house…just won $1.26 billion from #ICE,' wrote the New Republic.

"Whereas many companies with ICE contracts had long histories with immigrant detention, including private prison giants such as GEO Group, Acquisition Logistics had no prior experience in incarceration. Previously, its biggest federal contract was $16 million, and CEO #KenWagner is circling retirement at 77. Over the summer, the company’s website was inaccessible to the public, with the header 'Site maintenance in progress.' Archived screenshots showed the firm specializes in supply chain management. Could it safely operate a 5,000-bed detention facility?"

Read more:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/10/acquisition-logistics-ice-fort-bliss-detention-center-billion-dollar-contract/

#USPol #CampEastMontana #ICEDetentionCenters #Immigrants #HumanRights #ICESucks #AbolishICE #AbolishDHS #AbolishCBP #DetentionFacility #DetentionCenters

#Secrecy seems to be the hallmark of both #DetentionCenters and #Datacenters! Sneaky, sneaky...!

Mystery surrounds #RichmondVA-area home tied to firm behind $1.2B Army #Texas tent-camp contract

By: The Associated Press
Posted 3:36 PM, Aug 28, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — "When President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a contract worth up to $1.2 billion to build and operate what it says will become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex, it didn’t turn to a large government contractor or even a firm that specializes in private prisons.

Instead, it handed the project on a military base to Acquisition Logistics LLC, a small business that has no listed experience running a correction facility and had never won a federal contract worth more than $16 million. The company also lacks a functioning website and lists as its address a modest home in suburban Virginia owned by a 77-year-old retired Navy flight officer."
https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/mystery-surrounds-richmond-area-home-aug-28-2025

#USPol #HistoryRepeats #TrumpSucks #ICESucks #AbolishICE #AbolishCBP #AbolishDHS #Shameful #Fascism #DetentionCenters #HumanRights #WeKnowWhereYouLive #InternmentCamp #CampEastMontana #Texas #ICE #ICEDetention

A ‘Shameful’ Legacy: #Texas Has Officially Opened an #ICE #DetentionFacility at Site of #WWII #InternmentCamp

#CampEastMontana is now the largest #immigrant detention facility in U.S. history, but it’s just one of 19 sites that will add a total of 37,649 new beds for ICE detainment — a 105% increase in the state’s capacity.

by Leslie Rangel August 18, 2025

Excerpt: "In #ElPaso on Sunday, the #Trump Administration opened the doors to Camp East Montana, the largest ICE detention facility in the country’s history. It reportedly cost $1.2 billion under a U.S. Defense Department contract.

"The new facility is at Fort Bliss, one of five sites where Texas held detainees of #Japanese descent, as well as immigrants from #Germany and #Italy — including #AmericanBorn civilians — during #WorldWarII, according to the National Parks Service and The El Paso Times."

Read more
https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/08/18/texas-fort-bliss-ice-detention-facility-at-site-of-wwii-internment-camp/

#USPol #HistoryRepeats #TrumpSucks #ICESucks #AbolishICE #AbolishCBP` #AbolishDHS #Shameful #Fascism #DetentionCenters #HumanRights

Federal Agents Are Intimidating #LegalObservers at Their Homes: “They Know Where You Live.”

#Immigration authorities in #Minnesota have identified legal observers by name and address, and in some cases showed up at their homes.

by Austin Campbell
March 5 2026, 5:53 a.m.

"Former Minnesota state Sen. #MattLittle was lawfully observing federal immigration agents in a Dakota County neighborhood last month when the drive took an unexpected turn.

"As he followed their vehicles, they led him down a rural road that grew increasingly familiar during the 20-minute drive. Soon, Little told #TheIntercept, he realized where the federal agents were headed: his house.

"When he approached his driveway, two SUVs were already waiting, Little said. Agents moved to block his car, claiming he had impeded their investigation and that local law enforcement would be called. No other officers came to his house, and Little was not cited or charged.

" 'The intent was clearly to intimidate us. It’s stressful. It’s a little bit scary. But at the same time,' Little said, 'I just think it’s really important to be out there and monitoring what they’re doing.'

"Interviews, sworn declarations, and video reviewed by The Intercept indicate that Little is not the only person subjected to this kind of #intimidation. Across the #TwinCities, immigration agents have identified legal observers by name and address, and, in some cases, led them back to their homes after they engaged in lawful monitoring of immigration activity. Legal observers say this pattern of behavior sends a clear and chilling message: The federal government knows who they are and where they live.

"These encounters are unfolding amid a rapid expansion of federal #surveillance capabilities.

"Immigration authorities have significantly expanded their use of mobile #biometric and surveillance tools in recent years. Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection, for example, can use the smartphone app #MobileFortify to photograph a person’s face or capture fingerprints in the field and compare them against federal biometric databases, according to a Department of Homeland Security inventory of artificial intelligence technologies."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2026/03/05/ice-cbp-minnesota-surveillance-intimidation-observers/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/MggRo

#AbolishCBP #AbolishICE #ICESucks #Palantir #AISucks #PoliceState #USPol #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #SurveillanceState

How soon people forget...

A century ago, #FrancoAmericans were targeted in #Maine like today’s #Somali #immigrants

Opinion by Tommy Pinette, March 3, 2026

"Two years ago, I learned the infamous #KuKluxKlan exploded in popularity throughout Maine during its resurgence in the 1920s. Across the United States, the terrorist group amassed hundreds of thousands of new followers in a rather clever dissemblance as a community service and fraternal organization. At one point, in fact, approximately 30% of Maine’s native-born population were enrolled members of the KKK. Yet they did not target Somali-Americans, people on work visas, or permanent residents from Africa — they vehemently attacked the people we now call Franco-Americans.

"Prominent Franco communities in #LewistonME, #RumfordME, #OldTownME, #AugustaME, and #WatervilleME, called 'petits Canadas,' became targets of violence for the #KKK.

"One local history of the Franco-American community of Old Town recounts a horrific stand-off at French Island: holding torches and weapons, a mob of angry klansmen attempted to cross the bridge onto the island in order to burn it down. Only the rapid efforts of men in the community to block the bridge physically kept the island from going up in flames.

"And yet, I hear many of my Franco relatives talk poorly about immigrants. They repeat similar slogans to the ones President Donald Trump spreads about immigrants who come from Africa, particularly those from East Africa: “they shouldn’t be here … Somalia is not even a country” Animus defines how many Franco-Americans understand immigrants, the people who stand in the very same place their ancestors once stood a couple generations ago.

"Do not forget that our #WhitePrivilege came at a great historical cost in the forms of systemic French language suppression, decades of shameful stereotypes, and barriers to higher education. For almost 70 years, the state of Maine had a legislative policy of only offering public education in English. We must remember our ancestors, the memères and pepères who endured the same xenophobic insults immigrants in America face today."

Read more:
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2026/03/03/opinion/opinion-contributor/franco-americans-targeted-like-todays-immigrants-joam40zk0w/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/83Hi6

#USPol #WorldPol #MainePol #NewAmericans #NewMainers #USHistory #MaineHistory #ICESucks #AbolishICE #Hypocrisy

Step-by-Step #FamilyPreparednessPlan / #PlanDePreparaciónFamiliar: (Guía Completa)

Publication Date Feb 10, 2026

"Every family should have a family preparedness plan in case of an emergency. It is equally critical for immigrant families to think ahead and set more concrete plans for immigration-related emergencies that may arise.

To assist in this, we've created this toolkit that goes into detail about different childcare options available in case of an absent parent, how to find trusted immigration services in your community, and how to prepare to assert your constitutional rights in the presence of an immigration officer."

Read more:
https://www.ilrc.org/resources/step-step-family-preparedness-plan

#USPol #ICESucks #NewAmericans #NewMainers #ResourcesForImmigrants #AbolishICE

The hidden ICE blueprint that should horrify every American

An internal Department of Homeland Security document shows how ICE plans to cram thousands of detained human beings inside a Georgia warehouse.

by Will Bunch | Columnist
Published Feb. 22, 2026,

Excerpt: "A once sleepy rural town named Social Circle, Ga. — just over 40 miles east of Atlanta off Interstate 20 — has become the epicenter of the stealthy plan by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) to rapidly create an American gulag archipelago of massive former warehouses adapted into detainment camps for arrested #immigrants.

"The plan to convert a newly built 1.2 million-square-foot warehouse into a #ConcentrationCamp where as many as 8,500 humans — double the size of the current largest federal prison — would be housed for as long as 60 days (or likely more) has riled up both residents and public officials in a place where 75% voted for Donald Trump in 2024.

"The frustrated city manager of Social Circle, which was offered no input as a cash-flush ICE recently bought the spec warehouse for a whopping $128 million, told the Guardian that he’s denying the feds’ request to turn on the public water as they race to open their #DetentionCamp there as early as April."

Read more:
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/ice-detention-centers-georgia-dhs-noem-trump-20260222.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eQ0mD

#USPol #Fascists #Fascism #Authoritarianism #AbolishDHS #AbolishICE #ICEOut #ICESucks #TrumpSucks

From #Datacenters to #DetentionCenters. We don't need either!!! And of course, just like the proposed datacenter project in #SanfordME, there's SECRECY!!! Sneaky, sneaky!

#ICE’s purchases for big detention centers are marked by secrecy, frustrating towns

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH and MORGAN LEE
Updated 11:54 AM EST, February 21, 2026

Excerpt: SOCORRO, Texas (AP) — "In a Texas town at the edge of the #Rio rande and a tall metal border wall, rumors swirled that federal immigration officials wanted to purchase three hulking warehouses to transform into a detention center.

"As local officials scrambled to find out what was happening, a deed was filed showing the Department of Homeland Security had already inked a $122.8 million deal for the 826,000-square-foot (76,738-square-meter) warehouses in Socorro, a bedroom community of 40,000 people outside #ElPaso.

" 'Nobody from the federal government bothered to pick up the phone or even send us any type of correspondence letting us know what’s about to take place,' said Rudy Cruz Jr., the mayor of the predominantly #Hispanic town of low-slung ranch homes and trailer parks, where orchards and irrigation ditches share the landscape with strip malls, truck stops, recycling plants and distribution warehouses.

"Socorro is among at least 20 communities with large warehouses across the U.S. that have become stealth targets for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s $45-billion expansion of detention centers.

"As public support for the agency and President Donald #Trump’s #ImmigrationCrackdown sags, communities are objecting to mass detentions and raising concerns that the facilities could strain water supplies and other services while reducing local tax revenue. In many cases, mayors, county commissioners, governors and members of Congress learned about ICE’s ambitions only after the agency bought or leased space for detainees, leading to shock and frustration even in areas that have backed Trump.

" 'I just feel,' said Cruz, whose wife was born in Mexico, 'that they do these things in silence so that they don’t get opposition.' "

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-detention-centers-pushback-24e702da67281a672b0f77287aaa87ba

#USPol #ICESucks #ICEOut #AbolishICE #TrumpSucks #TrumpRegrets #ImmigrationCrackdown