Please, more coverage of the incarceration children, the repeal of the laws governing the conditions they're held in, the recision of their legal defense funds, and the stalling of their reunifications. It's all appalling, but just pure evil when visited upon children. I hope you and Tim will both do some podcasts on it. Not only does everyone need to know what is happening to these poor babies so we can mobilize on their behalves, but the abuse of children was one of the biggest movers of the political needle on immigration during the first Trump administration. It could be again.
To answer the question at the end, my community which is heavily immigrant, hispanic and agricultural has not yet seen ICE raids. But the community is feeling jumpy. I haven't noticed work stopping or shops staying empty yet but, as an example, local social media was full yesterday after two Department of Fish and Game officers drove a pick up into an area along the river. A lot of people were warning friends, neighbors and family it might be ICE and then a lot of people were calming friends, neighbors and family that it was just Fish and Game.
Part of the frustration is that the beneficiaries of all this are people without good faith and the full price is being paid by hard-working contributors to our community.
Push the Secret Police are in your neighborhood or coming to your neighborhood soon. Make it a big deal to report when and where this expanding SS is and how they alone have no DOGE busting their chops. It has to go out on social media platforms asap.
Up here near our northern border, I hear from lots of people I know who want to stop immigration and send back "illegals". But they really never have much of a rationale for this. People who are MAGA, never seem to want to get deep in the details of of their beliefs, as I would suppose that deep down they know these beliefs are not supported by reality.
I still cannot wrap my head around how the world is not burning down over the fact that these people may - MAY! - have committed a civil offense when entering the country, but many have never been charged with or convicted of a crime ANWHERE ON EARTH, and yet they are being detained in concentration camps and deported to countries they have no connection with. Imagine getting off a plane in a place you have no information about, you don't speak the language, you know no one, and you have no money. How are they ever going to put their lives back together? Who would ever EVER have thought they would be subjected to this kind of human rights violation by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
Kentuckistan and others here earlier make very good points. From K, "$450 million a year for 5,000 "deportee's". So, "near $100,000 a year per inmate,"
Anybody know what company was hired to run this thing?
"Americans don’t much like immigration, but they like the immigrants they know,”
A party interviewed by Carrasquillo said that was concluded in a poll "about forty years ago, by Rita Simon of American University"
Yes, when we talk to neighbors where we are, that's how they think, especially second generation Hispanics. (Thread on Alligator Alcatraz, the concentration camp allowed not just by Pres T, but by Florida's DeSantis.)
Great post in seeing a pattern for a “budding police state”. Also, a picture is worth a thousand words. Folks with access to these concentration camps, should take lots of pictures for evidence and for reminders to future generations.
Support the legal groups fighting with success: ACLU, Brennan Center…
Hate is hate. We are all in this together. 🙏
Extremists like mamdani need to be ostracized from the dems, in the monk’s very humble opinion. The fact that mamdani refuses to disown the slogan “from river to sea” which is used by hamas as part of its campaign in advocating Israeli genocide is so obvious. Elementary logic, Watson. 🙂
Not a lot of activity in NC at the moment, as far as ICE goes, but the same dynamic will be on display here - people can be prejudiced, but when it comes to the customers they have had for years the atiitude is very different - if these folks start getting scooped up, there will be in my opinion a very fast reversal of goodwill towards the Trump regime.
My pleasure - I like all your stuff, and am glad you are on the team! The thing that worries me (other than the rampant criminality and inherent evil intent of the base plan they have) is with the increase in funds, ICE will start folding drug interdiction into their portfolio - you know, because we all know who is reponsible for drug dealing in the US - 'it ain't a bunch of white guys' I think is going to be their line, phrased in a more polite method.
This will give them ingress into any area in the US that they want to go into, and the activity itself (drug interdiction) is the most corrupt endeavor of US law enforcement.
“They’re embarrassed about it. We sell merch.” That is the best summing up of how degraded the American culture has become compared to the rest of the world.
The stock price of CoreCivic (private prison company) shot up SHARPLY in Nov after the -privatizing pro-prison candidate won. Their marketing says "Reducing recidivism and building communities". Have not checked them deeply. (You do reduce recidivism if you kill your convicts, but hope that's not their strategy.)
The Atlantic published an article a couple of weeks ago about the dramatic drop in incarceration numbers. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that for-profit prisons are trying to boost their numbers by exploiting immigrants. https://apple.news/A3svUs6tYR1KjJDBwDmPIpQ
Talked two decades ago to someone whose spouse worked in a rural private prison. She said it meant only one adult per family had a job. Rural economy did not support both adults having work.
Possible mistake, not sure if she said it was a private prison. Could have been a jail or public prison. Look up Sister Helen Prejean on need for prison reform in Texas. Look up Robert Roberson and allegations of innocent people getting the death penalty in TX.
Lynn--Woman and spouse had moved to rural Texas, for spouse to work in rural prison or some jail system. We spoke at some statewide thing, possibly PTA or church. Not exactly sure, too many years ago, but think she either said they'd moved to Huntsville vicinity or I substituted that in my head as it was in the news. Sister Helen Prejean was active in Texas maybe back then (book and movie "Dead Man Walking")
The young woman had expected to find a job, but found it impossible. No one was hiring EXCEPT the spouse's employer. Asked why not work there? She said that employer refused to hire two from same family. Maybe a fear of nepotism?
We'd been told in TX, back then, that the jobs program angle of prisons was good for Texas rural areas, so Vasquez' comment "rang a bell". (Re:J Vasquez commented maybe Florida was using Alligator Auschwitz as a jobs program for rural areas. )
Just now, looked up Huntsville and prison. Goog AI thinks they now have SEVEN prisons, all in Walker County, all public, supervised by state's "DOJ".
"Huntsville is the home of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "
" Over 13,690 Inmates are housed here in Walker County and 8,362 are included in the city's population census"
Was talk at one point of bringing in prisoners from outside the state to make money for TX. Can't remember if it happened.
Texas likes killing. Texas often "goes overboard", acts as if there's an "Eleventh Commandment", "Thou shalt punish, the harsher, the better". The AI says there are two facilities for death row, one female, one male.
Know the state lacks consistently good appeals, has executed people believed to be innocent. Currently refusing to release the man caring for his sick child and accused of shaken baby syndrome when the child died. Refused to acknowledge the science was bogus. Look up Robert Roberson.
thanks prison jobs are a real reason counties want prisons -- that and the business their families may bring on visiting day . Wasn't aware of the nepotism rule .
I really would like to see people stop going along with the use of Trump's favorite moniker for this facility in the Everglades. This is a concentration camp. Full stop.
First of all, I think it's silly to pay attention to what Trump says as if it has any potential of being what he means. Do you all really think Trump has funded ICE to this massive extent, because he wants to deport illegal aliens? No. In my opinion, he does not. The reason he wants to spend so many billions on beefing up ICE, with concentration camps at home and abroad, with thousands of masked ICE agents refusing to show credentials, now with ICE attorneys in courts who refuse--with judges' permission--to identify themselves, refuse to state their names for the record--is because Trump is preparing to seize citizens--not just brown-skinned people, but white, red, yellow, black, and any other color humans come in--willy nilly off the streets and put them in camps. These are like the ones the Nazis called concentration camps, you see. If Trump or the thousand men behind him, enabling him, don't like you. If you posted a blog that was unflattering. If you're old. A woman. A Democrat. An LGBQT+ person. A political opponent from his own party. If you're sick. Homeless. A Muslim. A Jew. If you're someone Trump deems undesirable in his own sick mind. Well, then, he is preparing a massive nationwide system to snatch you, incarcerate you without reason or recourse, silence you, and take your freedom. This is what he's doing. The whole deporting immigrants rubric is just a test run. And it's working pretty smoothly, with lots of noise against it but no effective deterrent. If we want to stop this budding police state, we must do something. Not just politely object. We have to take some strong, organized, peaceful, effective action. And I don't know what that is yet. 20th-century methods don't seem to apply.
In Florida, DeSantis is the one permitting it? Florida Rep. Wasserman-Schulz was finally allowed in this week, had nothing good to say afterward.
Agree, Christina, this could be "trial run"; there's a risk the Prez could be "preparing to seize citizens--not just brown-skinned people, but white, red, yellow, black, and any other color humans come in--willy nilly off the streets and put them in camps."
I am deeply concerned about the Health Care Helpers in CCRC’s and Hospitals. Many are from Haiti and/or Jamaica and originally came to the US in the’90’s. They are essential workers in Senior Care. Now with children and grandchildren they are terribly frightened about what could happen this Fall. These Aides are close friends to the Seniors they assist. They give showers, help with dressing, do laundry, make meals and clean up the dishes. When a person is approaching death, an Aide will sit nearby and prevent a fall. How can anyone believe these extraordinary people should be hounded out of our Country. There will come a time when the Stephen Millers of our Country will need help and it won’t be there. Whoops another fall in the shower.
Stephen Miller will spend eternity paying for his sins . That's cold comfort now . I hope he goes to Alligator Alcatraz for the rest of his natural life if and when he is convicted
Please, more coverage of the incarceration children, the repeal of the laws governing the conditions they're held in, the recision of their legal defense funds, and the stalling of their reunifications. It's all appalling, but just pure evil when visited upon children. I hope you and Tim will both do some podcasts on it. Not only does everyone need to know what is happening to these poor babies so we can mobilize on their behalves, but the abuse of children was one of the biggest movers of the political needle on immigration during the first Trump administration. It could be again.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/07/immigrants-children-deportation-ice-orr/683514/?gift=vgXiZtXXUL-sen5rSW6R3jrAdxcZB4PODKilO4EiS0c
As always, appreciate the coverage.
To answer the question at the end, my community which is heavily immigrant, hispanic and agricultural has not yet seen ICE raids. But the community is feeling jumpy. I haven't noticed work stopping or shops staying empty yet but, as an example, local social media was full yesterday after two Department of Fish and Game officers drove a pick up into an area along the river. A lot of people were warning friends, neighbors and family it might be ICE and then a lot of people were calming friends, neighbors and family that it was just Fish and Game.
Part of the frustration is that the beneficiaries of all this are people without good faith and the full price is being paid by hard-working contributors to our community.
Push the Secret Police are in your neighborhood or coming to your neighborhood soon. Make it a big deal to report when and where this expanding SS is and how they alone have no DOGE busting their chops. It has to go out on social media platforms asap.
Up here near our northern border, I hear from lots of people I know who want to stop immigration and send back "illegals". But they really never have much of a rationale for this. People who are MAGA, never seem to want to get deep in the details of of their beliefs, as I would suppose that deep down they know these beliefs are not supported by reality.
I still cannot wrap my head around how the world is not burning down over the fact that these people may - MAY! - have committed a civil offense when entering the country, but many have never been charged with or convicted of a crime ANWHERE ON EARTH, and yet they are being detained in concentration camps and deported to countries they have no connection with. Imagine getting off a plane in a place you have no information about, you don't speak the language, you know no one, and you have no money. How are they ever going to put their lives back together? Who would ever EVER have thought they would be subjected to this kind of human rights violation by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
We went from “Give me your tired, your poor” to “Release the alligators.”
The cruelty was always the point—but now they’re selling merch to prove it.
This isn’t just a policy failure. It’s a moral faceplant in front of history.
And if your neighbor cheers for it, don’t ask them what church they go to. Ask them where they lost their soul.
Kentuckistan and others here earlier make very good points. From K, "$450 million a year for 5,000 "deportee's". So, "near $100,000 a year per inmate,"
Anybody know what company was hired to run this thing?
"Americans don’t much like immigration, but they like the immigrants they know,”
A party interviewed by Carrasquillo said that was concluded in a poll "about forty years ago, by Rita Simon of American University"
Yes, when we talk to neighbors where we are, that's how they think, especially second generation Hispanics. (Thread on Alligator Alcatraz, the concentration camp allowed not just by Pres T, but by Florida's DeSantis.)
Great post in seeing a pattern for a “budding police state”. Also, a picture is worth a thousand words. Folks with access to these concentration camps, should take lots of pictures for evidence and for reminders to future generations.
Support the legal groups fighting with success: ACLU, Brennan Center…
Hate is hate. We are all in this together. 🙏
Extremists like mamdani need to be ostracized from the dems, in the monk’s very humble opinion. The fact that mamdani refuses to disown the slogan “from river to sea” which is used by hamas as part of its campaign in advocating Israeli genocide is so obvious. Elementary logic, Watson. 🙂
Not a lot of activity in NC at the moment, as far as ICE goes, but the same dynamic will be on display here - people can be prejudiced, but when it comes to the customers they have had for years the atiitude is very different - if these folks start getting scooped up, there will be in my opinion a very fast reversal of goodwill towards the Trump regime.
Appreciate you sharing, Andy.
My pleasure - I like all your stuff, and am glad you are on the team! The thing that worries me (other than the rampant criminality and inherent evil intent of the base plan they have) is with the increase in funds, ICE will start folding drug interdiction into their portfolio - you know, because we all know who is reponsible for drug dealing in the US - 'it ain't a bunch of white guys' I think is going to be their line, phrased in a more polite method.
This will give them ingress into any area in the US that they want to go into, and the activity itself (drug interdiction) is the most corrupt endeavor of US law enforcement.
I hope I am wrong on that one.
“They’re embarrassed about it. We sell merch.” That is the best summing up of how degraded the American culture has become compared to the rest of the world.
Florida is using this as a jobs program. For-profit incarceration is an evil system with perverse incentives.
The stock price of CoreCivic (private prison company) shot up SHARPLY in Nov after the -privatizing pro-prison candidate won. Their marketing says "Reducing recidivism and building communities". Have not checked them deeply. (You do reduce recidivism if you kill your convicts, but hope that's not their strategy.)
I suspect they say “reduce recidivism” because they manage reentry programs, too. It’s definitely not good for business.
The Atlantic published an article a couple of weeks ago about the dramatic drop in incarceration numbers. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that for-profit prisons are trying to boost their numbers by exploiting immigrants. https://apple.news/A3svUs6tYR1KjJDBwDmPIpQ
Talked two decades ago to someone whose spouse worked in a rural private prison. She said it meant only one adult per family had a job. Rural economy did not support both adults having work.
Possible mistake, not sure if she said it was a private prison. Could have been a jail or public prison. Look up Sister Helen Prejean on need for prison reform in Texas. Look up Robert Roberson and allegations of innocent people getting the death penalty in TX.
I am not sure what you are saying . I know from living and working there that jobs are scarce iznrurka areas , but can you expand please
Lynn--Woman and spouse had moved to rural Texas, for spouse to work in rural prison or some jail system. We spoke at some statewide thing, possibly PTA or church. Not exactly sure, too many years ago, but think she either said they'd moved to Huntsville vicinity or I substituted that in my head as it was in the news. Sister Helen Prejean was active in Texas maybe back then (book and movie "Dead Man Walking")
The young woman had expected to find a job, but found it impossible. No one was hiring EXCEPT the spouse's employer. Asked why not work there? She said that employer refused to hire two from same family. Maybe a fear of nepotism?
We'd been told in TX, back then, that the jobs program angle of prisons was good for Texas rural areas, so Vasquez' comment "rang a bell". (Re:J Vasquez commented maybe Florida was using Alligator Auschwitz as a jobs program for rural areas. )
Just now, looked up Huntsville and prison. Goog AI thinks they now have SEVEN prisons, all in Walker County, all public, supervised by state's "DOJ".
"Huntsville is the home of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "
" Over 13,690 Inmates are housed here in Walker County and 8,362 are included in the city's population census"
Was talk at one point of bringing in prisoners from outside the state to make money for TX. Can't remember if it happened.
Texas likes killing. Texas often "goes overboard", acts as if there's an "Eleventh Commandment", "Thou shalt punish, the harsher, the better". The AI says there are two facilities for death row, one female, one male.
Know the state lacks consistently good appeals, has executed people believed to be innocent. Currently refusing to release the man caring for his sick child and accused of shaken baby syndrome when the child died. Refused to acknowledge the science was bogus. Look up Robert Roberson.
thanks prison jobs are a real reason counties want prisons -- that and the business their families may bring on visiting day . Wasn't aware of the nepotism rule .
I really would like to see people stop going along with the use of Trump's favorite moniker for this facility in the Everglades. This is a concentration camp. Full stop.
First of all, I think it's silly to pay attention to what Trump says as if it has any potential of being what he means. Do you all really think Trump has funded ICE to this massive extent, because he wants to deport illegal aliens? No. In my opinion, he does not. The reason he wants to spend so many billions on beefing up ICE, with concentration camps at home and abroad, with thousands of masked ICE agents refusing to show credentials, now with ICE attorneys in courts who refuse--with judges' permission--to identify themselves, refuse to state their names for the record--is because Trump is preparing to seize citizens--not just brown-skinned people, but white, red, yellow, black, and any other color humans come in--willy nilly off the streets and put them in camps. These are like the ones the Nazis called concentration camps, you see. If Trump or the thousand men behind him, enabling him, don't like you. If you posted a blog that was unflattering. If you're old. A woman. A Democrat. An LGBQT+ person. A political opponent from his own party. If you're sick. Homeless. A Muslim. A Jew. If you're someone Trump deems undesirable in his own sick mind. Well, then, he is preparing a massive nationwide system to snatch you, incarcerate you without reason or recourse, silence you, and take your freedom. This is what he's doing. The whole deporting immigrants rubric is just a test run. And it's working pretty smoothly, with lots of noise against it but no effective deterrent. If we want to stop this budding police state, we must do something. Not just politely object. We have to take some strong, organized, peaceful, effective action. And I don't know what that is yet. 20th-century methods don't seem to apply.
In Florida, DeSantis is the one permitting it? Florida Rep. Wasserman-Schulz was finally allowed in this week, had nothing good to say afterward.
Agree, Christina, this could be "trial run"; there's a risk the Prez could be "preparing to seize citizens--not just brown-skinned people, but white, red, yellow, black, and any other color humans come in--willy nilly off the streets and put them in camps."
I am deeply concerned about the Health Care Helpers in CCRC’s and Hospitals. Many are from Haiti and/or Jamaica and originally came to the US in the’90’s. They are essential workers in Senior Care. Now with children and grandchildren they are terribly frightened about what could happen this Fall. These Aides are close friends to the Seniors they assist. They give showers, help with dressing, do laundry, make meals and clean up the dishes. When a person is approaching death, an Aide will sit nearby and prevent a fall. How can anyone believe these extraordinary people should be hounded out of our Country. There will come a time when the Stephen Millers of our Country will need help and it won’t be there. Whoops another fall in the shower.
Stephen Miller will spend eternity paying for his sins . That's cold comfort now . I hope he goes to Alligator Alcatraz for the rest of his natural life if and when he is convicted
Agreed. 👏👏👏