Trump's Mass-Detention Campaign

"For those in Donald Trump's orbit, great power often comes with great dispensability. Take Kristi Noem, who, as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, was in charge of the President's top domestic priority of carrying out mass deportations, until she wasn't. She became the first Cabinet secretary to be fired in Trump's second term earlier this month, when he announced that he would replace her with Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma senator and a former mixed-martial-arts fighter."

"D.H.S. is now detaining some seventy thousand people in jails across the country, more than at any other point since the department was founded, in 2002. Twenty-three immigrants have already died in custody in the current fiscal year, putting it on pace to surpass the previous one, which had the highest number of deaths in immigration detention in decades."

"Since the start of Trump's second term, the Administration has opened new facilities, repurposed others closed by previous Administrations, and converted temporary holding cells at federal buildings in cities such as Los Angeles and New York into spaces for longer-term detention. Overcrowding, abuse, and neglect have made conditions far worse, and basic agency oversight has been gutted."

Kristi Noem's firing as DHS head signals that Trump's immigration agenda, shaped by Stephen Miller, will intensify rather than moderate. The department now detains approximately seventy thousand people across the country—the highest number since DHS's 2002 founding. Twenty-three immigrants have died in custody during the current fiscal year, on pace to exceed the previous record. The administration has opened new detention facilities, repurposed closed ones, and converted temporary holding cells into longer-term detention spaces. Overcrowding, abuse, and neglect characterize conditions, while basic agency oversight has been eliminated. These developments indicate the administration's immigration enforcement ambitions remain undiminished despite temporary operational pauses and congressional opposition.

Read at The New Yorker