(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Will Trump Approve Erik Prince’s Mercenary Army to Deport Immigrants; a $25 Billion Dollar Project? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-26
If Erik Prince’s proposal to privatize the capture, imprisonment and deportation of 12,000,000 immigrants in this country comes to pass, it could constitute a full employment program for members of the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, the Proud Boys, the Michigan militia, and other U.S.-based paramilitary groups.
In a clear case of “everybody wants to get into the act,” Politico’s Dasha Burns and Myah Ward recently reported that “A group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince, has pitched the Trump White House on a proposal to 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 (
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/documents-military-contractors-mass-deportations-022648). The price tag? A cool 25 billion!
“The blueprint — laid out in a 26-page document President Donald Trump’s advisers received before the inauguration — carries an estimated price tag of $25 billion and recommends a range of aggressive tactics to rapidly deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms, including some that would likely face legal and operational challenges, according to a copy obtained by POLITICO.”
Prince, the most recognizable name associated with the proposal, whose sister, Betsy DeVos, served as Trump’s Education secretary during his first term, “chased business ventures in the U.S. and abroad,” Politico noted.
The proposal aims to help Trump achieve his goal of deporting 12 million people in two years – approximately 500,000 per month. The documents points out that “To keep pace with the Trump deportations, it would require a 600% increase in activity. It is unlikely that the government could swell its internal ranks to keep pace with this demand …in order to process this enormous number of deportations, the government should enlist outside assistance.”
Prince’s Blackwater, formed in 1996, has reaped millions of dollars in government contracts for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing security services for U.S. officials and military personnel.
As Politico’s Burns and Ward pointed out, Blackwater “came under scrutiny in 2007 following the Nisour Square Massacre, when Blackwater contractors opened fire and killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 others — raising questions about oversight and accountability of private contractors. Several contractors were charged with manslaughter, and four were convicted in 2014. Trump pardoned them at the end of his first term in December 2020.”
Over the past seven years, Prince “reportedly helped raise money for an effort to spy on progressives and Democratic organizations opposed to Trump. [He] … played a role in the 2019 MAGA-crew effort alongside [Steve] Bannon to privately build a wall along the U.S. southern border (Bannon recently pleaded guilty to a fraud charge related to the wall effort and avoided jail time). And in 2020, [Prince] he pitched a $10 billion plan for buying into Ukraine’s military industrial complex and hiring Ukraine’s combat veterans into a private military company.”
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Prince had a peak net worth of $200 million. In an October 2024 interview with VladTV, Prince claimed to be worth "way less" than a billion dollars. He said he had been "crushed by 14 years of cancel culture, getting denied capital by banks… look, I'm not starving, but I'm worth way less than when I decided to start to serve my country. Look, it would have been better to take the proceeds from the sale of my dad's business, put it in municipal bounds and go to the golf course. Maybe the lesson is, DON'T serve your country because they'll fuck you for it" (
https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/ceos/erik-prince-net-worth/).
Perhaps the most chilling and creepiest element of Prince’s proposal is “the deputizing of 10,000 private citizens, including military veterans, former law enforcement officials and retired ICE and CBP officers, giving them expedited training and the same federal law enforcement powers of immigration officials. The document says after the border deputies are trained, they will be under [border czar Tom] Homan’s command,” Politico reported.
What could possibly go wrong with armed J6 veterans set loose upon the country?
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/26/2306415/-Will-Trump-Approve-Erik-Prince-s-Mercenary-Army-to-Deport-Immigrants-a-25-Billion-Dollar-Project?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/