A RISE TO POWER IN THE NAME OF DEPORTATION

Since January 20, the administration has used executive power to change immigration policy to fulfill its agenda of waging war on immigrants. These changes allow the government to turn the U.S. interior into an enforcement dragnet. By revoking previous administration policies (EO 14148) and declaring an emergency at the national border (Proclamation 10886; see EO 14159, EO 14165, EO 14194), the administration has given itself the power to cement future policy and practices to broaden their efforts in identifying and deporting immigrants. Much like the Heritage Foundation, since the election, there have been other ongoing closed-door efforts to prioritize the execution of the mass deportation policies.

Before the inauguration, Politico reported that a ‘group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince’ turned over a  26-page document with immigration proposals to the Trump administration. The proposal carries a $25 billion price tag and proposes the following:

Carry out mass deportations through a network of “processing camps” on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a “small army” of private citizens empowered to make arrests.

The blueprint is yet to be released, but it all aligns with Trump’s vow to manufacture the “largest deportation operation in American history” on day one. As of February 7, Synertex LLC. posted a job listing seeking ‘Space Management Leads.’ Synertex LLC. is based out of Reston, Virginia, and is an Enterprise IT and Solutions Development company focusing on machine learning, cloud and big data solutions, cyber security, and CBRN defense (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear). Synertex LLC. has since updated the listings, but the initial post revealed their client as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.).

Despite changing the language in the listing, it still identifies the entity as a government body and implicates its missions and requirements:

Synertex LLC is seeking a Space Management Lead to provide support to a government client in Washington, DC.

Skilled in the areas of facility space management and will possess deep experience in and knowledge of the customer's space management processes, procedures, and systems.

Demonstrates deep understanding of the customer's Program's missions and their corresponding facility requirements and will have a track record of delivering complex, mission-enabling facility projects.

5 years of experience with managing facility projects with specialized mission requirements; experience with planning, design and construction; developing and reviewing architectural, interior design and engineering plans, specifications and cost estimates.

Experience developing space plans, furniture plans, assessing and managing space requests/requirements against space allocation and utilization criteria.

On February 27, the New Jersey Monitor reported that Geo Group—the owner of Essex County Jail and a private prison contractor formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC), a subsidiary of the Wackenhut Corporation featured in the Netflix docu-series American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders—signed a 15-year contract with ICE worth nearly $60 million per year, totaling $1 billion over the contract’s duration. In 2011 and 2017, officials used Delaney Hall as an immigration detention center, and it is to become the first facility reopened under the Trump administration for detaining immigrants. George Zoley, founder of WCC, now Geo Group, emphasized that Delaney Hall is “brand-new inside and all ready to go. All we need to do is the recruitment, the hiring, the background screening, and the training.”

George Zoley is a notorious Republican donor and personally donated to Donald Trump’s campaign. Geo Group subsidiary, Geo Acquisition II, also made a $500,000 contribution in February of 2024, then another $250,000 contribution in August of 2024, and a second $250,000 donation in September of 2024 to the Make America Great Again pro-Trump Super PAC. From the time Trump won the election and the inauguration, Geo Group stocks increased 87%. Geo Group officials say they expect the facility to open by the end of June. Importantly. Executive Order 14006, Reforming Our Incarceration System to Eliminate the Use of Privately Operated Criminal Detention Facilities, was revoked by Trump’s signing of Executive Order 14148, Initial Recisions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions, allowing for the continuation of privately owned detention facilities to exploit humans for profit. [Geo Group’s long history disproportionately supporting Trump and other Republican candidates.]

There is overwhelming evidence that ICE is in the development of “processing camps.” Aside from Delaney Hall, six other known facilities are being modified and used for immigration detention centers. Of the six identified, four are private prisons owned and operated by CoreCivic, the world’s largest private prison company. In 2023, the company generated 52% of its annual revenue from federal prison and immigration authorities, including ICE, the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). CoreCivic is another consistent donor to Republican members of Congress and Conservative PACs across the United States. CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger told ABC News, “I’ve worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods of my career… We anticipate significant growth opportunities, perhaps the most significant growth in our company’s history over the next several years.”

CoreCivic’s privately owned prisons used for immigration detention include Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility in Youngstown, Ohio; Tallahatchie Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi; Cimarron Correctional Facility in Cushing, Oklahoma; and Nevada Southern Detention Center in Pahrump, Nevada. Military bases include Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The military strategically uses bases like Fort Bliss as models for nationwide expansion, directly aligning with the 26-page document outlined by Politico. The objective is clear: to mitigate the need to release immigrants from detention centers. CBS News reported that ICE had released some detainees when facilities reached 109% of their capacity.

The United States will increasingly use military bases as detention facilities now that Guantanamo Bay sent its 40 immigrants stateside, with no future deportation flights scheduled to Cuba. In total, the administration sent just under 300 immigrants to Guantanamo Bay while grappling with logistical and legal hurdles. The Guantanamo Bay immigration operation cost taxpayers $16 million; $3 million of that cost went toward tent setup alone, which remains nonfunctional, and the administration never used the infrastructure.

Per CBS News, the administration had been sending non-violent, low-risk immigrants to Guantanamo Bay alongside more violent immigrant offenders. This information raises concerns about the administration’s ability to distinguish between non-violent and violent immigrants, especially when their immigration status appears to be judged solely on their Latin origins. The other possibility is the administration is aware of the mixup and was merely using Guantanamo Bay as an experimental development to understand the cost-effectiveness of the overall operation and improve existing processes. The immigrants are the test market in this theory.

As of March 15, President Trump signed an executive order invoking the Alien Enemies Act but cited Tren de Aragua as the reason for doing so. Why would this be necessary if the President signed off on Proclamation 10886? For the optic of fear. Tren de Aragua derives its power from the similar brutality of the cartels. The stigma that has evolved from the Trump administration’s constant berating of Tren de Aragua gives the administration the ability to cast a broader net in profiling Latin immigrants. It will make it easier to meet the deportation quotas Trump had promised throughout his campaign.

Luis Alberto Castillo was one of two handfuls of men sent to Guantanamo Bay on February 4, and it was an ‘Air Jordan’ tattoo on his neck that made officials question his affiliation to Tren de Aragua. Yajaira Castillo, Luis’s sister, provided information that her brother was not a part of Tren de Aragua and that he was an everyday Venezuelan escaping the economic crisis in Venezuela. Allegedly, authorities reserve Guantanamo Bay for ‘the worst of the worst,’ but how is it possible for someone trying to survive to slip through the cracks of the system only to be purported as a criminal?

“Any of us who have tattoos, they think that we are Tren de Aragua,” said Evelyn Velasquez, 33-year-old Venezuelan woman, told The New York Times in September. “I’ll go apply for a job and when they hear that we are Venezuelan, they turn us down.”

CSI Aviation, a New Mexico-based company and longtime federal contractor, was awarded a no-bid contract worth up to $128 million on February 28, and it is set to last only six months. On the same day President Trump signed the Alien Enemies Act, the contract was modified to increase the number of ICE deportation flights. CSI has been a top contractor for government-contracted transportation for ICE since the early 2000s. According to POGO:

CSI Aviation describes itself as a “seasoned federal contractor” that has “provided a variety of contractual services to the U.S. Government for more than 30 years,” according to its website. 

Since 2005, CSI Aviation has received over $1.6 billion in federal funding—mainly from Immigration and Customs Enforcement. However, its website does not mention the agency. The company, specializing in deportation flights, frequently subcontracts with airlines like GlobalX. In 2023, GlobalX operated 74% of ICE’s removal flights.

Recently, GlobalX planes deported over 260 individuals to Central America, including alleged gang members—some of whom had disputed affiliations. These flights went ahead despite a court order blocking them, sparking accusations of defying judicial authority, which the White House denies. The administration controversially invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify some removals without court hearings, a move critics call a dangerous overreach. CSI, despite its major role in contentious immigration enforcement, has largely avoided public scrutiny.

As if this could not become any more incestuous, in March of 2024, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Geo Group named Geo Transport Incorporated (GTI) was awarded a five-year contract:

Inclusive of option periods, to provide air operations support services on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), as a subcontract or to CSI Aviation, Inc (“CSI Aviation”) which has been selected by ICE as the prime contractor.

Here is a statement from George Zoley regarding the GTI transportation division:

Our GTI transportation division has a long-standing record providing secure transportation services for our government agency partners across the United States. The award of this new five-year contract to provide air operations support services on behalf of ICE is a testament to GTI’s service delivery and safety record since its founding in 2007. We look forward to continuing to work with CSI Aviation as we jointly deliver high-quality services under this important contract.

In October of 2024, President Trump held a campaign rally at a CSI Aviation hangar near the Albuquerque International Sunport. There was much speculation as to why this was, notably outlets saying it was for security measures. Now that we can follow the paper trail, the immigration system is the foundational money laundering scheme for the Trump administration’s operations that will seed into every aspect of our daily lives.