Politico has a report out this morning that there is a $25 billion proposal circulating in Trumpworld to carry out mass deportations with a “small army” of private citizens empowered to make arrests.
That army would be headed by none other than Erik Prince, billionaire brother of billionaire Betsy DeVos and the man who built Blackwater, the military contractor known for its role in providing security, training and logistical support to U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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.
The blueprints for the proposal are laid out in a 26-page document Trump’s advisers received before the inauguration, and recommends a range of aggressive tactics to rapidly deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms.
Mass deportations would be carried out through a network of “processing camps” on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a “small army” of brownshirts — and all would likely face fresh logistical and legal challenges.
Deporting 12 million people in two years “would require the government to eject nearly 500,000 illegal aliens per month,” the document says. “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.”
The brownshirt group also includes Bill Mathews, the former chief operating officer of Blackwater, who told Politico: “We have not been contacted by, nor have we had any discussions with, the government since the White Paper that we submitted months ago. There has been zero show of interest or engagement from the government and we have no reason to believe there will be.”
Prince and others named in the document declined to comment.
More details in the full article at Politico.
