ICE's New Budget: More Police Than the FBI, and Concentration Camps
A sobering conversation with immigration attorney Michael Kagan.
While the press and the pundits talk about loss of Medicaid and a runaway national debt, I’m finding that the most frightening part of the 900+ page budget bill that squeaked through the Senate and the House this week is the funding for ICE.
The current budget for ICE detention facilities is $3.4 billion.
This new law that Trump signed on the 4th raises it to $45 billion - a 13-fold increase.
The law also triples ICE’s enforcement budget to nearly $30 billion. And, it provides for a $20,000 signing bonus for new recruits to become, essentially, the U.S. Gestapo.
The total ICE budget under this new law will be over $170 billion, which Heather Cox Richardson points out is “more than the military budgets of all but fifteen countries.”
When I read these numbers in Michael Kagan’s Substack, I knew I had to talk to him. Kagan is the director of the Immigration Clinic at UNLV. This is Las Vegas, where more than a third of the population is Latino.
He’s a busy man.
And he’s scared.
Which makes me scared.
Below are many options for you to listen to to our interview - all at once or in steps.
Here is the full interview. It’s 42 minutes long.
Part 1
In part one, we talk about these ICE numbers and what it means in practical terms.
We also debate which oppressive dictatorship this administration most resembles.
Part 2
In part two, Mike and I talk about who should be worried, the black humor that makes the rounds in immigration offices, how citizens can get picked up if they’re in mixed status groups. Which we often call “families and friends.” We also talk about previous times in U.S. history in which Central American citizens have been deported.
What we totally agree on is that innocent people will be kidnapped, taken to concentration camps and tortured. For having brown skin. Or speaking with an accent. Or speaking against Trump.
Part 3
In part three, we talk about how many of us still have our heads in the sand in terms of what this administration will do. The question I start with is, “Is Harvard just a test case? Is the Trump administration looking to keep out ALL foreign students?”
We also explore the idea that it’s not that people didn’t see what was coming. It’s that other people didn’t take Trump and his cronies seriously.
I now know that’s how fascism works.
Part 4
In part four, Mike and I talk about the 14th Amendment. I am far more pessimistic about the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 14th. I think they will simply ignore it. But I hope Mike is right.
Point of definition. Mike says in this clip, “There’s a lot of Civ Pro minutia.” Every profession has its lingo and law professors are not exempt. Civ Pro means Civil Procedure, which is the part of the law that governs civil actions (lawsuits) in courts. Immigration law is largely under Civil Procedure.
Also Mike asked me to plug his book during the interview. I forgot. But it’s just come out in paperback, and it’s a really good book, with a really catchy cover.
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