God, they’re such childish trolls.
I think they should go back to the INS and get Service back in the name.
“DOGE” showed us this already.
I just streamed a good documentary from 2024, filmed from 2019 through that year (i.e., the end of Trump I and all of Biden). It includes interviews with social scientists who tracked the flow of money to fortify ICE before the showy nationwide push in 2025 during Trump II.
It’s quite prescient. They call it the “deportation industrial complex”: money flowing to congressional districts, of both parties, across the country – setting the stage for the mass detentions and deportations that in fact came to pass. (In some ways, it’s an extension of the incarceration industry, so disgustingly unique the the US).
The most relevant parts are from 1:01-1:05, 1:11-1:17, and 1:32-1:34. One of the researchers predicts ICE will explode onto the streets of “Chicago” and he names a couple other cities as examples; he was absolutely right, even if he didn’t happen to include Minneapolis.
You can view the film for 30 days, after a donation of the amount you choose.
There’s a new (interim) sheriff in town.
At least this is someone with experience, as he worked at ICE for years. Unfortunately, that experience isn’t all good.
Venturella was executive director of ICE’s Secure Communities program, which deals with people in the country illegally who are in the custody of other law enforcement agencies.
It was a program that tried to find undocumented folks in custody of other law enforcement organizations, so they could snatch them up and deport them. Obama ended that shit.
President Barack Obama ended the Secure Communities program in 2014. Then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a memo at the time that the program alienated immigrant communities from local law enforcement.
Under the program, authorities shared digital fingerprints from everyone booked into jail with federal authorities, who used it to look for people in the country without authorization.
Of course, a tool like that is great for fascists, so Trump brought it back.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reinstitute the Secure Communities program in 2017, during his first term.
What has Venturella been up to recently?
He also served at the private prison company GEO Group as a senior vice president of client relations until 2023. GEO Group has over $1 billion worth of contracts with ICE, according to public records.
Oh, well that’s lovely.
U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., a critic of Trump’s immigration policies, objected to Venturella’s selection to lead ICE.
“Let’s be clear: his appointment is to ensure Trump’s corporate bosses continue profiting from our communities’ pain,” she wrote on X Tuesday night.
A mix of “Venture Bros.” and “Vampirella”. He should be treated with the dignity his name suggests.
GEO run the ICE detention center a few miles from me as the guttersnipe flies. It consistently violates court orders to allow access by health inspectors, legislators and inmates’ attorneys; in addition, it has one of the highest death numbers in the system (over 70 acknowledged since 2017, and that’s probably an undercount).
The city and state have tried to shut it down multiple times, but GEO always seem able to find a (quasi) legal loophole.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia: OK, I will self deport to Costa Rica.
Team Trump: No, we will deport you to Liberia.
Abrego Garcia’s legal team has said he’s willing to deport himself to Costa Rica, which has agreed to take him. But in a memo last month, ICE’s then acting director Todd Lyons argued that sending him to the Central American country would be “prejudicial to the United States.”
“That, in itself, is a facially legitimate and bona fide reason” to send him to Liberia instead, Department of Justice attorneys wrote in court documents on Monday.
ICE has “weighed the evidence and documentation” and “decided that it is in the best interest of the United States to proceed with removal to Liberia,” they wrote.
Government lawyers argue that the U.S. has expended significant political capital and entered “high-stakes” and “extensive negotiations” to send him there.
Trump team won’t let Kilmar Abrego Garcia self deport. They hope to force him to an African nation he’s never visited
Even their promises that “if you leave, we will let you go” that Noem made on TV (more like threats than promises) are lies. They just want to punish people. Being unnecessarily cruel shows their fragile MAGA cultist supporters that they are strong and can push people around, so they can be trusted to protect the “right” people.
They’re saying they are forced to deport him to Liberia because … They were already trying to deport him to Liberia?
That’s called a sunk cost, Counselor. Should have no bearing going forward.
Their argument is literally that it’s where they want to send him and the judge can’t stop them. That is the reason they are giving. It’s a shitty reason and the judge is not buying it.
Judge Xinis also pressed the government on why it refuses to designate Costa Rica, which has offered Abrego Garcia refugee status, as the country of removal.
“He elected Costa Rica, you’re not having it,” Xinis said. “You’re insisting on Liberia – it’s punitive.”
Molina argued that the Secretary of Homeland Security has discretion to disregard an individual’s preferred country of removal and said the decision is “not reviewable” in federal court.
The judge is saying that sending him to Liberia is punitive, and DHS is saying, “Yeah, so, what are you going to do about it, lady?”
I suspect the judge is going to tell the DHS to fuck off, and that Garcia is heading to Costa Rica.
Stray thought: Every time anyone says “the cruelty is the point” it’s precisely because of situations like this.
The regime wants Abrego-Garcia deported as a show of force. He has agreed to self deport and Costa Rica has agreed to accept him. DHS cannot agree to this as it grants Abrego-Garcia agency in the decision and in his own life. That runs counter to the reason for the deportation, which is a pure aggrandizing, narcissistic power play.
Given the deportation of Adriana María Quiroz Zapata to the Democratic Republic of Congo where she faced a daily risk of medical complications up to and including death, and Abrego-Garcia surviving CECOT, I’m going with we’re outsourcing the extermination of some of the deportees to Africa.
At which point they deport him to Liberia. Then…?
Then it will be just like when they deported him to El Salvador. A huge fucking mess, but eventually he’ll be returned, but not after suffering even more abuse. Because this administration is full of immature, sadistic, racist assholes.
That was a rough fight, and they were lucky. Getting him back before disaster happens is a nasty risk we on the somewhat safe sidelines shouldn’t be willing to take. Do NOT assume the government won’t prevail this time.
I’m just making a prediction. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t push it this time. They’ve gotten a lot of flak for their abuses, and have been scaling back things like immigration enforcement. Not nearly enough, of course, but this doesn’t seem like the priority it was earlier in this administration. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just go “whatever” and let him go to Costa Rica.
The thing is, they really are that petty. Letting this go would be the smart and sensible thing. Which is why they won’t.
I’m not saying they aren’t. I’m saying that they’ve changed tactics slightly since they brought so much heat on themselves in Minneapolis. And not just the changes in leadership. Here’s an example.
I’m only saying that there’s a chance that they’re not going to pursue this with the same fervor they once did. It’s not that they’re stopped being petty, it’s that they’ve focused on other priorities in their pettiness. Like the war and the ballroom.
It’s like they just spiral down. They fuck up something, so then they need a bigger fuck up so people will stop talking about all the previous fuck ups.