ICE announces a new policy of opening mega, soft-sided detention centers across the country. Work begins in a month with these six states as the focus: UT, KS, PA, IN, GA, and LA.
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Tag Archives: ICE
Is ICE Coming to Your Town?
In mid-August the Washington Post broke an important story about Stephen Miller ramping up his mass deportation scheme. All over the country, ICE is eyeing defunct prisons and slowly re-opening some of them. Some communities have tried to fight these re-openings. Some see dollar signs and roll-over, often thinking they have no grounds to stop the feds making contracts with private companies like GEO and Core-Civic.
ICE’s new plan will double detention capacity to over 100,000 people and spread detention centers into new areas of the country. Fueled by the $45 Billion from the Big Beautiful Bill, ICE will hire 10,000 new employees and expand existing and soft-sided detention centers (like Alligator Alcatraz). Of special note is the impending growth in family detention facilities that the administration has said is its preferred method of deporting families. Apparently, we should expect to see a lot more of this in 2026 and onward.
In Colorado, ICE seems to be planning to open up to three new sites: Walsenburg, Hudson, and Ignacio. Reporting from Walsenburg indicates that their mayor is all in for ICE to come to town. He expects an economic boom. The problem is that there’s a body of research that suggests that prisons don’t actually lead to economic growth. The research indicates that employment growth doesn’t happen. Towns with prisons have lower retail sales, lower wages, and slower housing growth compared to towns without prisons. Property values decline near the prison with a shift to lower income households. Any jobs the prison might bring in generally go to senior people already in the system (or company). People in these small rural towns where ICE wants to re-open a defunct prison often don’t have the skillsets required to be hired. One study showed that prison employees commuted twice as far as other workers indicating prison workers often don’t reside in the communities where the prison is located.
And those wonderful economic benefits that are sure to flow back into a community with a prison? They just don’t materialize. A prison (or ICE detention facility) operates as a unique business model, a self-sustaining entity that takes care of its own food, laundry, maintenance, security, transportation, etc. It doesn’t link into the community to buy things or stimulate local businesses the way any other kind of operation might. In addition, prison or detainee labor can compete and crowd out local competition for services in the community.
And then there are the costs that local taxpayers would be required to bear to have the “privilege” of being stigmatized with having a morally repugnant entity in town. It’s a shame that so many towns have already had ICE reactivate these centers. More are scheduled to open unless something changes and changes fast.
For more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2miN1ltrOUc&t=18s
ICE documents reveal plans to double immigrant detention space by 2026 – The Washington Post Washington Post, 15 Aug 2025, “ICE Documents Reveal Plans to Double Immigration Detention Space by 2026” by Douglas MacMillan, N. Kirkpatrick, and Lydia Sidhom
•So You Think a New Prison Will Save Your Town? | The Marshall Project The Marshall Report, 6-14-2016, Tom Meagher & Christie Thompson
•ACLU: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration (Nov 2, 2011) bankingonbondage_web.pdf p. 20-22: Scant Economic Benefit for Local Communities
•The Local Economic Impacts of Prisons | The Review of Economics and Statistics | MIT Press Nov 7, 2024, The Review of Economics and Statistics (2024) 106 (6): 1442–1459.
•The Development of Last Resort: The Impact of New State Prisons on Small Town Economies, Terry L. Besser and Margaret M. Hanson, Iowa State University (paper under review at the Journal of the Community Development Society) Microsoft Word – Besser Hanson CDS 04.doc
Filed under immigration
NO KINGS DAY Protest: June 14, 2025
In light of what’s going on in LA and everything else, we need everyone on the streets for this march. Find your local march (by zip code) at https://www.nokings.org
Check out the downloadable artwork under Art then Posters.
BTW- Everyone needs to watch the use of language in media/government sources now. Especially, note if “riot” replaces “protest”. It is a common ploy by fascism to weaponize language to escalate tensions and then call for “law and order”.
They also have great resources like trainings here:
https://www.nokings.org/trainings
Safety & De-escalation: June 8th, 4PM Zoom
Disappeared in America: June 9, 8PM Zoom
Remember self-care as we carry on this fight!
A Stitch in Time
Life in this Mad World
I’m one of those people who believe that forewarned is forearmed. That anxiety and worry is often set aside if we have a plan. In fact, the mere act of planning involves us in a positive process that assures that we are not frozen in a time of crisis. But I’ve also come to understand that my way of seeing the world is not necessarily the only way. There are some of us right now who are already tuning out, going to ground. Some can’t stand to think about next steps. For those of you of that ilk, we part ways here. Reading on is not for the faint-hearted.
OK, let’s talk about what happens if Trump enacts the Insurrection Act.
Last weekend the Hands Off! protests brought an estimated 5 million Americans (approximately 2% of the population) flooding into the streets protesting a whole host of violations to fundamental rights, the destruction of the government, infrastructure, the obliteration of the economy, and many other things. These were peaceful protests and remarkable feats.
A looming deadline of April 20th is approaching when a joint report from the Secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security is due concerning the safety on the southern border. They are tasked to specifically address whether the Insurrection Act of 1807 should be invoked. Note that April 20th is Easter AND Hitler’s birthday. The next nationwide day of protest is the day before (April 19th). Some think that if Trump gets the recommendation to invoke this act, he will likely do it either on or about this date. This would allow him to use the military at the border and potentially in blue “sanctuary” cities. While the Insurrection Act has been used at times by Presidents, its use is reviewed by the courts only in retrospect.
photo: AramiFeraxa
THE FALSE FLAG EVENT:
What may be even more concerning is that with mass demonstrations becoming more and more popular, Trump may choose to create a false flag crisis that conveniently leads to martial law. This could be easily done if he calls up groups like the Alt-Right, Neo-Nazis, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, right wing militias, and others. Some believe that Trump is just waiting to deploy these troops against peaceful demonstrators in order to provoke a violent clash that would lead to a call for martial law to reestablish order. After Charlottesville and January 6th, it’s hard to dismiss the idea. Many people seem to think Trump has waited this long to invoke the act because he needed to have his people in key positions to get the job done. His cabinet was seated, and his minions are now in place.
THE PLAYBOOK:
Of course, causing the violence that requires the full use of martial law ultimately is how democracy falls. It doesn’t happen in one day, but it does happen quickly. There is a playbook by which totalitarian rulers have historically accomplished this goal and if we are going to stop America falling, we have to recognize the pattern.
CREATE THE SITUATION & MANIPULATE THE POPULACE:
As the initial violence kicks off, it’s likely that we will see other escalations to follow. Simple crowd control at an event or two would hardly get Americans behind the idea of giving up freedoms (and that’s what this administration is after). So, we should expect things like “terrorist” bombings, targeted assassinations, and other high-profile acts of violence that shock us. All of these events would be used to manipulate the public to call for law and order. The media will then be flooded with images of rioting, cities burning, all kinds of out-of-control behavior, much- if not all of this, will be orchestrated by the right. If done correctly by the playbook, Trump will appear to be a hero answering the growing cries of citizens to reestablish order. Trump will be only too happy to step in and assume total control. He has no plan to ever cede that control back.
photo: Martin Falbisoner
At this point, Trump can now mobilize and order troops into major American cities where his opposition is the greatest. These people are vilified as the enemy and are rebranded seditionists, traitors, and the woke mob. Good Americans are now asked to grab their guns and defend ‘Merica. Trump uses the militias that have been reformed after being freed from the Jan. 6th incarcerations. That way any military professionals who balk at using force against their own people can be sidestepped. Now citizens (largely from the right) have been cast into roles of helping the police or keeping order.
ELIMINATE OPPOSITION:
What follows next is likely to be the arrest of high-profile opposition. We should expect that journalists, Democratic officials, activists, academics, and anyone who has publicly taken on Trump or his policies publicly to be arrested. The media will cover all aspects of this round up of those people now made criminal under this administration. Democratic governors may become a special target because removing them removes all resistance at a state level. This would allow Trump the freedom to do what he wants in each and every state. To solidify control, military and law enforcement are then made to take loyalty oaths.
As the cities are locked down, the military and National Guard might be used to establish firm control. Curfews, lockdowns, and checkpoints would be created to maintain order. Militarized presence on the streets defines a new normal. Highways to Canada and Mexico are strictly patrolled by Trumpian forces. Red states are especially enthusiastic to answer the call to man checkpoints and identify traitors, seditionists, and anyone they deem a threat to Trump. Recall the move to open Guantanamo Bay, the 106 ICE detention centers, and various for-profit prisons to retain illegals? That “system” is now used to house the thousands of American citizens deemed traitorous under the Insurrection Act. And still there isn’t enough room. Texas comes through with “open air” jails (tent cities) scattered throughout the state.
photo: Jesse Collins
CONTROL THE MESSAGING:
While all this is under way, the press comes under increasing pressure. The administration needs total control of the messaging to silence dissent. We should expect to see journalists and media heads threatened with legal action, blackmailing, and pressure to comply. The social media that Trump controls (X, Truth Social, etc.) will become increasingly loud in an attempt to drown out any contrary opinions. Some social media will go dark. Some media will cave to the pressure. We enter the police state where monitoring of everyone’s communication becomes routine. Trump exploits his friendships with tech giants to conduct surveillance on all Americans to root out dissent. Arrests are made when people express non-Trumpian ideas. Incentives are created to have Americans report on each other’s behavior.
CLOSE THE BORDERS:
Borders close. No one, especially anyone who opposes the dictator is leaving. Passports are revoked. No-fly lists are created and enforced. Apprehensions at the borders and airports are commonplace. ICE and DHS arrest political enemies. Many are lost or have disappeared.
END FREE ELECTIONS:
The 2026 election is postponed due to national security concerns. This is a pretext to do away with democratic elections forever. By 2028, the first rigged American election (similar to a Russian election) takes place. The 250-year American democratic experiment has died. Americans live under totalitarian rule.
Although I’ve laid this out as a linear plan, it’s likely that many events would be overlapping, and other parts may occur even earlier than I outline. Some steps may be invisible to us, at least for a while. Might it not happen at all? Of course! But remember, they have a plan in Project 2025 and Trump and his bunch have been making remarkable progress checking off all those tasks that he supposedly knew nothing about. Well, Ellis- this just sounds crazy! Yeah, I know!! But this is the same bunch that engineered Jan. 6th. Who thought that would happen? Who thought Trump would be elected? Who thought all the insurrectionists from Jan. 6th would be pardoned? Let’s not say- who thought they’d end democracy?
I am indebted to Angela Woodward and others for their keen insight and understanding of these times we live in.
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An article about the Insurrection Act, Wargaming a What-if, the likelihood it might happen, what we might be able to do:
The Project 2025 Tracker: https://www.project2025.observer/
Filed under Political
APRIL 5: National Day of Protest
“This is a nationwide mobilization to stop the most brazen power grab in modern history.,” according to the organizers. “Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies are orchestrating an all-out assault on our government, our economy, and our basic rights—enabled by Congress every step of the way.”
Things are moving fast and gaining momentum. A recent article in the Times Weekly, reported that 2,085 events protesting the Trump administration happened nationwide in Feb. 2025. More than 500 events were scheduled during the recent congressional recess that became notable for the Republicans who refused to meet their constituents and the lively interaction that resulted from those Congressmen and women who actually showed up.
April 5th is a day of what organizers hope will be the biggest single day of protest since DJT took office. More than 1000 events are planned across the US and in multiple foreign countries. That’s what happens when you turn on your friends, become a bully, and threaten democracy worldwide. In Washington DC, Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin will headline the event along with multiple other speakers scheduled.
The crisis is here. Up close and personal, and it’s time to act. Fascism is on the march in the US. The last I saw, 14 countries had travel advisories out warning their citizens about traveling to the US. Social media is full of every-day-Americans warning citizens of other countries, “don’t come here, we’re not safe.” Not safe to travel, not safe to work, not safe to study abroad, not safe to do research. We are busy stripping human rights away, allowing the consolidation of power, building concentration camps, eliminating protective social systems, and gutting economies. And make no mistake about it, there is a level of cruelty that underlies all of this. When some Americans see photos of the El Salvadoran prison that the Trump administration has funded which looks remarkably like Holocaust pictures, they react with glee. Humanity and empathy have been surrendered at the feet of the anointed savior, DJT.
Another milestone passed this week. We have known since the election that people are leaving the country. Although it’s too early to assess the brain drain occurring as a result of those fleeing (and the effects of not receiving the necessary infusion of academic minds from other nations who normally would have come to the US), three professors from Yale jumped ship. One of them, Jason Stanley, is considered an expert on fascism (I’ll be talking about his book soon). If a leading expert on fascism thinks it’s getting too dangerous and is leaving the US for Canada, what does that say about the current state of the country?
Links are below to find an event near you. You should also consider joining a rapid respond team in your area to help protect immigrants, your neighbors, and yourself. They teach basic rights in the face of the continued assault by ICE. Once upon a time in America, immigration was an activity done without a paramilitary organization armed to the teeth, sidestepping the rule of law. Those days may be gone forever.
What to Know About the April 5 Anti-Trump Protest in DC
About — Hands Off! FIND AN EVENT HERE
Join a Hands Off! Mobilization Event Near You. RSVP Now! – Progressive Democrats of America
Project 2025 Tracker (for a real shock!)
To find my books:
Filed under current events
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