A MAGA-led group of private military contractors are pitching Donald Trump on a plan to use a civilian army to carry out his promise of mass deportations, Politico reported Tuesday.
The contractors led by Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and its former Chief Operating Officer Bill Matthews, calling themselves 2USV, sent a proposal to Trump’s advisers before his inauguration, pitching a comprehensive, if not legally dubious, plan to expedite massive deportations to displace 12 million people in two years.
Their pitch included plans for a bounty program, mass deportation hearings, temporary encampments on Army bases, and civilians deputized to apprehend undocumented immigrants.
To reach its goal of 12 million deportations, 2USV projected that it would need to “eject nearly 500,000” undocumented immigrants per month.
“To keep pace with the Trump deportations, it would require a 600% increase in activity,” the proposal said, adding that “the government should enlist outside assistance” to address this rise in demand by deputizing 10,000 private citizens to assist law enforcement.
These private citizens would be former law enforcement agents, military veterans, and former ICE and Border Patrol officials with the same federal law enforcement powers as bonafide immigration officials. They would work under the direction of Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called border czar.
Former ICE Director John Sandweg told Politico that 2USV’s plan to deputize private citizens was legally dubious.
“I don’t see how you could do private sector, deputized law enforcement officers,” Sandweg said. “That’s subject to an immediate injunction by a court.”
Prince, one of the central forces behind 2USV, has several ties to Trump. In 2018, Prince reportedly helped raise money for different MAGA causes, including one to infiltrate organizations that opposed Trump, and another to fund the construction of a wall on the American southern border. Betsy DeVos, Prince’s sister, served as Trump’s secretary of education during his first term. In 2020, Trump pardoned a group of Blackwater military contractors who had been found guilty of manslaughter after massacring 17 Iraqi civilians.
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