by Stephen Prager | Feb 6, 2026 | Article, ICE, immigration, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Reprint, Trump
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Feb. 02, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
In the wake of immigration agents’ killings of three US citizens within a matter of weeks, the Department of Homeland Security is quietly moving forward with a plan to expand its capacity for mass detention by using a military contract to create what Pablo Manríquez, the author of the immigration news site Migrant Insider calls “a nationwide ‘ghost network’ of concentration camps.”
On Sunday, Manríquez reported that “a massive Navy contract vehicle, once valued at $10 billion, has ballooned to a staggering $55 billion ceiling to expedite President Donald Trump’s ‘mass deportation’ agenda.”
It is the expansion of a contract first reported on in October by CNN, which found that DHS was “funneling $10 billion through the Navy to help facilitate the construction of a sprawling network of migrant detention centers across the US in an arrangement aimed at getting the centers built faster, according to sources and federal contracting documents.”
SCOOP: A repurposed Navy contract to funnel tens of billions to ICE for a nationwide “ghost network” of concentration camps—just got a lot bigger. https://t.co/yvzszpD8t2— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) February 2, 2026
The report describes the money as being allocated for “new detention centers,” which “are likely to be primarily soft-sided tents and may or may not be built on existing Navy installations, according to the sources familiar with the initiative. DHS has often leaned on soft-sided facilities to manage influxes of migrants.”
According to a source familiar with the project, “the goal is for the facilities to house as many as 10,000 people each, and are expected to be built in Louisiana, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Utah, and Kansas.”
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by Mike Ludwig | Feb 6, 2026 | Alex Pretti, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Disasters, FEMA, Floods, ICE, Kristi Noem, News, Renee Nicole Good, Texas, Trump Administration, Weather, Whistleblowers, winter storm
Secretary Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was already facing scrutiny as temperatures plunged and winter storms rolled across much of the United States at the end of January. The expansive winter storms came just after immigration officers ultimately under her command killed two people in Minnesota. The killings heightened public anger against Immigration and Customs…
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by Candice Norwood | Feb 6, 2026 | ICE, immigration, immigration jails, News, Prisons, Public Health
Period products like pads and tampons are considered an essential public health need, but access for women and trans people held in federal custody — from prisons to immigration detention centers — remains inconsistent. While specific figures for women held in immigration detention have not been reported for President Donald Trump’s second term, the detention population broadly reached record…
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by Sharon Zhang | Feb 5, 2026 | Alex Pretti, Chuck Schumer, Democrats, Department of Homeland Security, Hakeem Jeffries, ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, News
Senate and House minority leaders Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) subtly weakened their already tepid demands for ICE reforms in a press conference on Wednesday — before negotiations with Republicans even started. In a press conference about the Democrats’ demands, the two leaders reiterated their belief that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other…
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by Sasha Abramsky | Feb 5, 2026 | 2020 Election, 2026 midterms, Department of Homeland Security, DHS, Donald Trump, elections, ICE, midterms, Op-Ed, Steve Bannon, Tulsi Gabbard, Voter Intimidation
On February 3, as Donald Trump was doubling down on his push to “nationalize” elections, Steve Bannon, MAGA’s version of Rasputin, promised his War Room podcast audience that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be deployed to swarm polling places during the upcoming midterm elections. “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November…
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by Amy Goodman | Feb 5, 2026 | Alex Pretti, Border Patrol, CBP, ICE, immigration, Interview, Renee Nicole Good
citizens who have had violent encounters with federal immigration agents deployed in cities across the U.S. testified before Congress on Tuesday. Amid harrowing testimony by three victims and the brothers of Renee Good, congressional Democrats offered apologies and promises of accountability. Not a single Republican lawmaker showed up to the hearing. Renee Good’s brothers Brent and Luke…
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