Red States Encouraged to Build More Concentration Camps

Due Process Denial by Design

Passage of Trump’s budget has enabled a process leading to government control over what its citizens think, say, and do. It’s a mirror image of what school children during the cold war were told would happen in a world controlled by the Godless communists of the Soviet Union. It’s exactly what the Tea Party types said would happen if President Obama had his way.

Our Immigration Security Complex is now funded to the tune of $170 billion for immigration enforcement: about $50 billion to build a wall on the southern border, $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and $45 billion for detention camps.

The $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will create a domestic law enforcement apparatus larger than the FBI ($11.3 billion), the Bureau of Prisons ($9 billion), and the Drug Enforcement Administration ($3.3 billion) combined.

Money for detention camps ($45 billion) is about four times as much as the US budgeted in 2023 to finance new affordable housing ($12.8 billion). I would bet that quadrupling the housing budget would have a far more positive economic and social return than forcing people grabbed from the streets into cages with one toilet/water fountain combo for 32 occupants.

The Florida concentration camp known as Alligator Alcatraz, which the President claimed would house “vicious” and “deranged psychopaths” awaiting deportation, currently houses approximately 750 humans, according to the Miami Herald, which obtained a list of names.

• Mixed among the detainees accused and convicted of crimes are more than 250 people who are listed as having only immigration violations but no criminal convictions or pending charges in the United States.

Nationally, 70% percent of all detainees in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody are being held for civil violations, not criminal convictions, according to Trace Reports.

• Reporters sent the list to officials at the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the absence of a criminal charge in the United States doesn’t mean migrants detained at the site have clean hands.

• “Many of the individuals that are counted as ‘non-criminals’ are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gangsters and more; they just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.,” McLaughlin told the Herald/Times. “Further, every single one of these individuals committed a crime when they came into this country illegally. It is not an accurate description to say they are ‘non-criminals.’”

NBC News fact-checked administration claims about criminality, finding that, of those arrested nationwide, 752– or 0.4%—were convicted of murder and 3,390–or 1.8%—were convicted of or facing pending sexual assault charges.

The truth is that ICE is arresting people as fast as they can, without regard to their legal status. In Los Angeles, the city obtained a court order limiting the ability of federal agents to detain people without reasonable suspicion beyond their race, ethnicity or occupation.

Does anybody really think agencies whose operations are based on a presumption of guilt will obey such court orders?

Look no further than the case of Maryland resident Abrego Garcia, sent to El Salvador, where the government initially lied about its ability to re-patriate him, tried to paint him as an abusive husband, and is now saying he’s guilty of human trafficking. At each stage, judges and defense lawyers involved in this case have called out government intransience, only to be met with another round of fabricated excuses or accusations.

ICE assigns each detainee a threat level with a scale of 1 to 3, with one being the highest. Those without a criminal record are classified as having “no ICE threat level.” As of June 23, the latest data available, 84% of people detained at 201 facilities nationwide were not given a threat level. Another 7% had been graded as a level 1 threat, 4% were level 2 and 5% were level 3.

US citizens who have been swept up and incarcerated have routinely been accused of assault and/or interference with law enforcement activity. Most of those detained have seen local prosecutors refuse to bring the cases to trial. Some have described being pressured to remain silent after release. Failure to acknowledge or communicate Miranda Rights is a universal complaint.

CalMatters recently reported on a deaf Mongolian man who was ensnared in a system where his rights were routinely denied or ignored.

• Avirmed left Mongolia early this year and entered the U.S.in February seeking asylum from persecution because of his disability. A 2020 assault in Mongolia left him with a traumatic brain injury that causes seizures and memory loss. He was attacked because of his disability, according to court records. His family declined to say how he reached the U.S.

• A legal complaint filed on his behalf says Avirmed gave border officials a letter written in Mongolian and translated into English, notifying them of his disability and his intent to seek asylum. Customs and Border Protection agents refused to read or accept the letter, his attorneys allege in the complaint against the Department of Homeland Security.

• Agents transferred him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where he was placed in detention at the for-profit Otay Mesa Detention Center, run by CoreCivic, where he is still being held.

It may take a few more cases to prove this point, but my analysis says that the operations aimed at immigrants don’t attempt to provide due process by design. The underlying premise coming from the top is that those detained are less-than-human, and when regular citizens or media try to make a fuss, stuff simply gets made up to justify that point of view.

Foreign tourists are getting ensnared by the deportation enforcement process, like ‘Thomas’ an Irish citizen who overstayed a tourist visa for three days due to a medical condition.

Via The Guardian:

• From there, what should have been a minor incident became a nightmarish ordeal: he was detained by Ice in three different facilities, ultimately spending roughly 100 days behind bars with little understanding of why he was being held – or when he’d get out.

• “Nobody is safe from the system if they get pulled into it,” said Thomas, in a recent interview from his home in Ireland, a few months after his release. Thomas asked to be identified by a nickname out of fear of facing further consequences with US immigration authorities.

• Despite immediately agreeing to deportation when he was first arrested, Thomas remained in Ice detention after Donald Trump took office and dramatically ramped up immigration arrests. Amid increased overcrowding in detention, Thomas was forced to spend part of his time in custody in a federal prison for criminal defendants, even though he was being held on an immigration violation.

Alligator Alcatraz, a moniker/image being used by the Florida GOP to sell fear-related merch, is a state program. The state of Florida, not ICE, is responsible for its operations, which are largely allotted to outside contractors on a no-bid basis. Federal funding, to the tune off $450 million annually, will come via reimbursements from Washington.

The architect of the administration's intentional cruelty programs, Stephen Miller, is urging other state governments to get in on the action by building their own camps.

Via the New Republic:

• What’s more, red state politicians are paying attention. Fox News contacted numerous gubernatorial offices to ask if they intend to take up Miller’s invitation. The responses were positive, with many eagerly touting plans for detention complexes. While it’s unclear if these will resemble “Alligator Alcatraz,” the underlying impulse is clear: Many red states want to expand state-run detention efforts. And again: The money is there.

• This is a bad development. “Alligator Alcatraz” should not be the model for the future of migrant detention in much of the United States.

• Here’s why. The facility is funded and operated by the state of Florida, but the state can use it to detain undocumented people under a federal program that allows ICE to authorize local law enforcement to carry out immigration crackdowns. That puts “Alligator Alcatraz” in a grey area: Local law enforcement agencies are using it to carry out Trump’s immigration detention agenda even as ICE does not run the facility.

Greg Sargent’s reporting at The New Republic reveals that the driving force behind the construction of Florida’s camp, FL Atty Gen. James Uthmeier, is setting an example for other younger Republicans looking for a way to help their political careers.

• Uthmeier is indeed a homegrown Florida version of Miller: Only 37 years old, he brings great precociousness to the jailing of migrants. Like Miller, he is obscure and little-known relative to the influence he’s amassing. Also like Miller, he is fluent in MAGA’s reliance on the spectacle of inhumanity and barbarism.

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Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to glorify immigration enforcement efforts and smear opponents with the violence tag, the public isn’t buying it. There has been a big shift in sentiment away from supporting deportations and toward finding a path to citizenship for migrants.

Paul Krugman delves into changing perceptions, starting with:

• First, it’s important to understand that the call for mass deportations and/or imprisonment was based on a lie — the claim that America is facing a huge immigrant crime wave. “They’re not a city of immigrants, they’re a city of criminals,” declared Kristi Noem about Los Angeles last month. Last week city officials reported that LA is on track to have the fewest homicides in 60 years.

• It's true that many Americans have remained willing to believe that big cities like LA and NYC are scary urban hellscapes, even though they’re quite safe these days.

• An aside: There was a period in the 1970s and 1980s when New York, in particular, actually was the kind of scary place people like Trump and Noem claim it still is. As it happens, that sort-of hellscape period coincided with an era when New York had fewer immigrants than at any time before or since

As to whether or not changing public attitudes (or the courts) will slow the neighborhood sweeps, I’m not optimistic. The money’s been appropriated, and, by God, it must be spent–unless it involves science or DEI or Public Radio, in which case Congress will likely vote to take it back.

But the real impetus for all this rhetoric and drama over immigration is racism. And the billionaires who want a country that looks like them and doesn’t include “others.” As smart union organizers have long realized, race and other social constructs are valuable tools in keeping the less-rich divided and distracted.

So, yes, this is yet another question of class. Those who think this injustice machine that now is funded will stop with undocumented immigrants need to acknowledge it is already hoovering up documented immigrants, along with terrifying many communities where newly rooted Americans live and work.

In practice, ICE enforcement errors mostly stemming from racial profiling are common, and the victims are ‘punished’ via a system resistant to correcting errors.

Opponents to the ICE programs are already being cast as supporters of gang violence and/or terrorists.

Following are links to articles that you may find useful.

What to Do When You See ICE in Your Neighborhood by Justin Caffier at The Intercept

• Out running errands and see a cluster of weirdos kitted out for war, milling about like they’re stuck in a Call of Duty matchmaking lobby? Grab some pics and vids to raise the alarm. Keep in mind that specificity is paramount when logging these sightings, both to increase efficacy and avoid panic. Fortunately, one of master’s own tools has proven itself an invaluable counterintelligence asset. Plucked straight from U.S. military field books, the acronym S.A.L.U.T.E. can help you gather the most pertinent details. It’s also the practice almost universally recommended by the groups I spoke to.

• Size: How many people and/or vehicles do you see?

• Activity: What, specifically, are they doing that’s suspicious?

• Location: What address, cross streets, or landmark are they at (the more specific the better)?

• Uniform: What are they wearing, whether it’s fatigues, nondescript civilian clothes, or something else entirely?

• Time: What date and time did you observe them?

• Equipment: What guns, weapons, or devices do they appear to be carrying?

There has been legitimate growing concern over safety protocols for activists. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been as much understanding of the nuances involved in dealing with online media/email programs.

Not everything needs to be a secret; yes there are some bad desperados out there on the interwebs, but there are also people looking for causes to support in a world where the corporate media are blind to their causes. So it’s okay to have bake sales or whatever and list them on Facebook, etc. If they are being held at a non-public place, then providing addresses upon RSVPs is a good precaution.

FYI– Proton handed user data to governments over 10,000 times in 2024.

Using Signal groups for activism by Micah Lee offers some of the best advice I’ve seen for keeping family business in the family.

• I'm in a Signal group with about 500 people from around the world that focuses on digital rights. I've known some people in the group for years, but others I've never met. Still, it's a safe place to discuss human rights tech issues without worrying about infiltration by fascists.

• The rules include, "Be cool and be kind, or be kicked out," and "New members need to be vouched for by an existing member." There are five admins. If I have a friend who I think would be good to add to the group, I can invite them, and then vouch for them in the group, and one of the admins can let them in. If someone tries joining and no one vouches for them, they don't get let in.

• Signal groups make it possible to have semi-public, but still incredibly private, spaces like this. If we want to grow movements, we need to welcome many, many more people. Everyone isn't going to know and trust everyone else, so a simple rule like "you need an existing member to vouch for you" is a great way to keep out the riff-raff. You can always choose to make more strict rules if you want, like requiring two people to vouch for new members.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an invaluable resource for understanding the vulnerabilities and possibilities of the virtual world.

Selfies of Shame by Brad Willis at Perspectives
Revealing the darker depths of their own souls.

• Throughout history, seeing groups of people as “the other” because of their ethnicity, religion, language, disabilities, gender, sexual preferences, or simply because they have something we want for ourselves, has inevitably led to discrimination, marginalization, hostility, exploitation, and ultimately, violent oppression.

• It might start with seemingly harmless gestures like smiling selfies by a road sign, but when our more primitive instincts of animosity, prejudice, greed, insecurity, and schadenfreude prevail, democracy, equality, and empathy become eclipsed, and the doors to oppression are thrown open wide.

• Native Americans were “the other” to the British settlers.

• Black Africans were “the other” to the slave trade and plantation owners.

• Jews were “the other” to the Nazis.

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The Smallest Room in the House by Parker Molloy at The Present Age
Rahm Emanuel says Democrats focus too much on bathrooms. He's wrong about which party is obsessed...and about everything else.

• Here's what actually happened in 2024: Republicans spent over $200 million on anti-trans attack ads while Democrats remained virtually silent on the issue. The Trump campaign's "Kamala is for they/them, Trump is for you" ad ran unopposed as Democrats refused to defend trans people or even articulate their own position. The New York Times revealed the truth in its own recent analysis: this Democratic silence "allowed Republicans, who spent hundreds of millions of dollars on ads attacking Democrats on transgender rights in 2024, to define voters' perceptions of Democratic policy positions."

• So when Emanuel claims Democrats need to talk less about trans issues, one has to ask: How do you talk less than not at all?

• This isn't just about Emanuel's mathematical impossibility. It's about a man with a documented history of throwing vulnerable people and communities under the bus — from covering up the police murder of Laquan McDonald to closing 50 schools in Black neighborhoods — now urging Democrats to abandon yet another marginalized group. Emanuel doesn't want Democrats to win by standing for something. He wants them to win by standing for nothing, hoping Republicans will stop hitting them if they just lie down.

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What causes obesity? A major new study is upending common wisdom by Gretchen Reynolds at The Washington Post

• Other experts agree. “It’s clear from this important new research and other studies that changes to our food, not our activity, are the dominant drivers of obesity,” said Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University in Boston.

• The findings don’t mean, though, that exercise is unimportant, Pontzer emphasized. “We know that exercise is essential for health. This study doesn’t change that,” he said.

• But the study does suggest that “to address obesity, public health efforts need to focus on diet,” he said, especially on ultra-processed foods, “that seem to be really potent causes of obesity.”