As Americans were enjoying beach time and other summer pleasures, the ICE deportation machine was in overdrive.
Some stark July statistics, all record highs: 49,000 immigration arrests. Nearly 80,000 removal orders by immigration judges. More than 325 plane flights depositing tens of thousands of deportees in dozens of countries.
August’s numbers could be even higher as ICE goes even lower to round up more young unaccompanied children – many US-born. We’re also seeing the horrors of Haitian migrants being tracked, detained and deported after losing their Temporary Protected Status. (The tracking is done by shackling Haitians with electronic surveillance ankle monitors.)
The worst is yet to come. And with more brutality. This is not opinion. This is based on a recent batch of federal contract solicitations and contract awards for ICE.
Last week, ICE awarded a $16.7 million contract to outfit ICE officers with shock gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to alleged combative individuals, whether detainees or protesters. The no-bid contract to Compliant Technologies of Kentucky calls for producing 6,000 of the ‘de-escalation devices” over the next six months.
On Aug. 20, ICE tripled its orders with 14 private contractors to track down immigrants. The contracts, known as skip tracing orders, totaled $57 million. The companies will use public records, commercial databases, and online sources to find where immigrants live and work. According to Scripps News, the contracts include bonuses tied to how many people they find for ICE.
On Aug. 28, another federal contract solicitation details how ICE intends to arrest, hold, try and deport people at scale in the wake of its failed warehouse detention strategy. As described by Project Salt Box, ICE envisions a streamlined operation, run mostly by private contractors, that carries the person from the moment of arrest to the flight out of the country. It involves mobile detention centers inside vans, courtrooms inside contractor-run jails and a clause saying state law does not apply. The jail hubs, each with 700 to 1,800 beds, would be in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Washington and Florida.
Slowing the Machine
It’s encouraging that elected officials are pushing back – not just against ICE, but the hundreds of companies profiting from the largest mass deportation campaign in US history.
The City Council of Jersey City’s bold vote in June to withdraw $225 million in municipal deposits from Citizens Bank over its lending ties to ICE prison companies was a pivotal moment in our successful campaign against the Rhode Island bank. Citizens ended its lending ties with the prison companies, CoreCivic and GEO Group, in mid-July.
I’m also heartened by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s executive order last week to prevent companies profiting from ICE from winning city contracts.
“Chicago spends billions of dollars every year purchasing goods and services,” Johnson told reporters last week. “And today we’re making it very clear where our heart is. Our heart is with the immigrant families who have endured the fear and intimidation of (these policies).”
We need more leadership like this and not just from elected officials. The American public should also be voicing their concern – in how they vote and by joining campaigns against companies profiting from the despicable ICE agenda
