‘Like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings’: Donald Trump’s ICE director cruelly breaks down his vision for deportations
If you thought you needed to wait for the new series of Black Mirror to see a tech-dystopia in action, you were wrong. All you needed to do was listen to the higher ups at ICE.
To get to the top of an agency like ICE requires an ability to quieten nagging human emotions such as empathy. And current agency director Todd Lyons seems to actively revel in a role many people would consider to be inhumane. This was especially obvious during his recent speech at the Border Security Expo.
In an episode that makes Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine seem like a how-to guide rather than a warning, Lyons discussed why deportation needed to be treated “like a business,” adding he wanted to see people removed from the country as efficiently as “Prime, but with human beings.”
Putting aside the terrifying and dehumanizing way in which a leading government official proudly discussed ruining people’s lives and putting them in danger, Lyons’ speech had plenty of other dark implications. His idea is part of a wider plan that the Trump government is enacting to transfer public wealth into private hands. Money that could conceivably go into schools and infrastructure is instead being funnelled out to private businesses, many of whom provide substandard services that verge on illegal.
The speech Lyons gave was nothing short of a frank admissions that the primary concern of the new administration wasn’t a cohesive immigration policy, but a to create a wild west where money could easily be made, even if it meant laws and ideas that Americans allegedly hold dear, like the right to due process and a fair trial, are trampled over.
Trump “border czar” Tom Homan was even more naked in his promise to deliver cash into private hands, telling the crowd of wealthy execs “We need to buy more beds, we need more airplane flights, and I know a lot of you are here for that reason…let the badge and guns do the badge and guns stuff, everything else, let’s contract out.”
The contracting out of vital government services began as an ideological project under the Reagan administration, but really hit its stride during the younger Bush years. During that time, both the Middle East and the American purse were looted as contractors with links to the government earned billions for shoddy services.
The most egregious of these abusers is often seen as Blackwater, a company who earned unheard of amounts to provide security in Iraq, and were linked to a slew of human rights abuses and massacres. Blackwater founder and CEO Erik Prince did not face any charges for the crimes committed under his watch, despite there being plenty of evidence he knew about them. In fact, he has sway with the current Trump administration, and his sister was the Education Secretary during Trump’s previous term.
It makes sense that this is the playbook under Trump. Everything so far about this administration points to it being a 4 year project to find out how much wealth can be scammed out of the American people by the president and his Republican cronies, in the most dangerous and terrifying ways. And the use of Amazon as a shining example is also apt: this is a company known for its serious worker abuses, among other major issues.
But, hey, at least families will be broken up and billionaires will get richer. And that’s the most important thing. Right?
(featured image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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