Over the past few months, Erik Prince, former head of the private military company Blackwater, has pitched multiple proposals to the White House to help with mass deportations.
From The Hill: “Over the past few months, Erik Prince, former head of the private military company Blackwater, has pitched multiple proposals to the White House to help with mass deportations. Prince has argued that achieving President Trump’s aggressive deportation goals will require the government to “supplement” ICE’s capabilities. According to one of his proposals, a new Prince company, 2USV, would train and deploy an army of as many as 100,000 armed and deputized citizens. “
Prince’s proposed “army” would be a “pro-government militia,” which the academic literature defines as an organized, armed group that is government-sponsored and not part of regular security forces.
Reuters reports that in Prince was in discussions on implementing the deal as the U.S. and Congo explore a broader deal on critical minerals partnerships, after Congo pitched a minerals-for-security deal to U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration.
And presently Prince is in Haiti after the government has spent more than two years of fighting against the gangs that have laid siege to the country. The Haitian government has resorted to hiring private military contractors. Blackwater founder Erik Prince is reportedly sending up to 150 former military officers to assist the government in reestablishing security.
Coincidently, both these countries are included in Trump’s travel ban. The implications of this are unknown but clearly Prince is working to become an accepted part of Trump’s team again.
“The administration has not yet decided to implement Prince’s proposed plan, though Trump said he “wouldn’t be opposed to it, necessarily.” As academic experts on non-state armed groups like militias and on immigration, we are alarmed at this possibility.
This is because scholarly research on the type of group Prince would mobilize suggests three key patterns. First, these groups are often tasked with committing human rights violations in pursuit of the government’s political goals. Second, the current domestic political environment in the U.S. is conducive to their formation. Lastly, employing groups like this would allow federal government officials — including the president — to evade accountability for illegal or inhumane tactics.” The Hill
