Locals Stop ICE Warehouse Prison Camps

Rachel Maddow reports on local groups in cities and towns across America, in red and blue states, that are blocking the conversion of warehouses into ICE prison camps. She reports that despite the fact that DHS has $38 Billion dollars set aside for migrant prison camps, it has not been able to convert a single warehouse prison camp in the entire country—because local groups stopped them from building them in their towns.

To find out where ICE prison camps are being sited in your state, and how you can stop them, visit Get the Facilities Out ICE. https://www.gtfoice.org

[Note: I think this site might have been hacked. I can’t get through although I visited the site a few days ago and it was working fine.]

Americans thwart Trump’s immigrant prisons plan by making it too hard (The Rachel Maddow Show Podcast)

Okay, this was Romulus, Michigan this weekend out near the Detroit airport. Hundreds of people met up at the local middle school and then they marched a mile and a half to a warehouse facility where the Trump administration is trying to put in a Trump prison camp to hold thousands of people without trial.

“Local residents of Romulus, Michigan turned out for that protest. Lots of local officials did too and state officials. The Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Michigan was there.”

“Democratic Congressman Shree Thanedar was there. Some local state reps were there too, Dylan Wigella and Donovan McKinney. People were marching and protesting there against the Trump administration’s plan to put one of these warehouse prison camps out by the Detroit Airport in Romulus, Michigan.”

“The Democratic-led state government in Michigan has filed a lawsuit in federal court to try to stop that facility as well. In addition to that, Michigan Democratic Congressman Rashida Tlaib has also now filed federal legislation that would block the Trump administration from trying to convert warehouses into prison facilities anywhere in the country. She’s already got tons of co-sponsors for that legislation.”

“I should say though, in addition to that lawsuit that has already been filed to stop the Romulus facility, another lawsuit of that type was just filed by another Democratic-led state. It was just filed in Arizona by Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General Chris Mays. She, with this lawsuit, with a federal lawsuit, is trying to stop the Trump administration from building another one of these Trump prison camps at a warehouse in the town of Surprise, Arizona, which is just outside of Phoenix.”

“When Chris Mays filed that lawsuit against the Trump administration, the local Indivisible chapter there released a statement expressing their, quote, deep gratitude to their state’s Attorney General for going to court to try to stop what Trump is doing there. That lawsuit was announced on Friday, the very next day in Surprise, Arizona. On Saturday, hundreds of people turned out to say, thank you to the Attorney General for filing that lawsuit, and just to protest that they will never allow it to be there, that they’re going to fight this thing every way they can.”

“There were a gazillion of these types of protests all over the country this weekend. I’m going to show you some of them in part because I recognize that I am part of the national media. Therefore, I am a little self-conscious about the fact that the national media has really been sucking its thumb on this story and hasn’t much caught on to it yet.”

“The national media has been really behind on this story. But local media have been taking notice of these fights everywhere they are happening, and local media everywhere this weekend took notice of these protests that happened in more than 180 different locations all over the country. And I’m just telling you right now, you know, file this for future reference.”

“Someday, when this signature sort of landmark turn against the Trump administration goes down in American history, when somebody in the future, looking back at this time, finally figures out that this was actually a really dramatic and important thing. When sometime in the future, somebody figures out that Donald Trump, when he got back into the office, when he got back into office, he tried to build himself a huge archipelago of prisons to hold people without trial. And he succeeded in getting Republicans in Congress to give him billions and billions of dollars for it.”

“And his administration really did make all these secret, ominous warehouse purchases all over the country to do this for him. Someday, somewhere, someone in the future is going to marvel at the fact that despite the fact that Trump got back into office after everything about him, despite the fact that he got funding for this thing, despite the fact that they bought these things, somebody in the future is going to marvel at the fact that none of these things ever actually got opened. That Donald Trump did not get his archipelago of prison camps to hold people outside the legal system.”

“And the reason he didn’t get it is not because he didn’t try hard enough, but because people all over the country stood up and said, no, not here. You cannot do this. We won’t let you.”

“You, sir, have a lot of bad ideas. This is the worst one. And we’re not going to let you do it in our town.”

“Someday that history will be written about this moment in American history. And when that history is finally written, I can tell you right now, all the footnotes in that history are going to be to like blue sky posts from local activists and substack articles from local activists and archive stories from local newspapers and little straight to the point YouTube clips from the local TV news stations. They keep being told, have all gone away, but they have been covering this even as the national media has fallen down on the job.”

“And so I’ll show you some of what I know. Here’s Mount Kisco, New York, this weekend. Protesting this weekend against Trump’s ICE prison camps out in the cold and the rain on Saturday in Mount Kisco, New York.”

“Here’s Anchorage, Alaska, this weekend, where they had signs naming and shaming their Republican members of Congress who voted to fund ICE’s expansion. Here’s Colma, California, this weekend with the banner that you see there, Stop ICE Warehouse Detention. Here’s Tucson, Arizona, protesting this weekend against Trump’s ICE prison camps.”

“They’re outside the office of their Republican Congressman, Juan Ciscamani, in Tucson. Here’s El Paso, Texas, where the largest existing ICE prison is already up and running. It is not one of these warehouses they want to build.”

“It’s a tent facility that they built at Camp East Montana in El Paso. It has a horrific record of prisoners dying and infectious disease outbreaks. El Pasoans this weekend turned out in big numbers.”

“They marched from the gates of Camp East Montana to the local Homeland Security offices, saying no to Trump’s ICE prison camps. There were protests against Trump prison camps in Marietta, Georgia this weekend, and in Conyers, Georgia, and in McHenry, Illinois, and in Las Cruces, New Mexico. And communities not cages.”

“In Portland, Maine, there were protests. In Portland, Maine, Trump’s federal agents took a 19-year-old nursing student and locked her up in one of these ICE prisons. And Portlanders this weekend were out on the street saying, We want her back.”

“There were protests against Trump prison camps this weekend in South Lake, Texas. There was a big protest this weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah, outside the governor’s mansion. Salt Lake City is one of the places they are trying to build another one of these huge warehouse Trump prison camps.”

“There was another really big one in San Antonio, Texas. In San Antonio, people rallied in front of the warehouse site itself, including local Catholic clergy and local elected officials. San Antonio has been pulling out all the stops locally to try to stop this thing that Trump’s trying to do to them.”

“Local news reports say that even though it’s Texas, so they’re not going to get any help from their state government, local news reports say that city officials in San Antonio are not only passing resolutions trying to stop this thing within their own power, they’re also currently taking legal advice on whether they too, as a city, can bring the kind of lawsuit that has been brought by the state of New Jersey, by the state of Michigan, by the state of Maryland. In Maryland, the lawsuit there, again, brought by the state. That lawsuit in Maryland has made landmark progress already.”

“That lawsuit in Maryland against the prison that Trump wants to stand up in Williamsport, Maryland, just outside Hagerstown, that was supposed to be the first one of these big warehouse prisons to open. But that lawsuit by the state of Maryland and the implacable opposition of the local people of Maryland has already forced a halt to the construction there. That was the first one they wanted opened, and the courts say they cannot continue construction on getting that turned into a prison.”

“Today, I can show you this. On the road to that site, the road to that facility, just outside Hagerstown in Williamsport, Maryland, you see this billboard. Ice camp planned 5.6 miles ahead off Hopewell Road.”

“Not in our community. Speak out now. That billboard in Maryland put up by Indivisible, we’re told it may not be the last, at these sites where Trump is trying to build these warehouse facilities into prison camps.”

“In Hagerstown, Maryland this weekend, Dominic Gwynn, a veteran photojournalist, caught some shots of people protesting against the planned Trump prison camp there. They were protesting out in the rain. He noted that it was prom night for a local high school.”

“He said some of the kids steered well clear of the protest when they realized what was going on, but he said some others, even in the rain, even in the cold, even in their tuxes and prom dresses, some of the kids came over and joined in in that protest in Hagerstown. This weekend and over the last few days, we saw a whole bunch of protests in the Northeast, specifically against Citizens Bank, which is based in the Northeast. Citizens Bank has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in companies that run these immigrant prisons for Trump.”

“In a statement, Citizens Bank said in part that it does not comment on specific customer or client partnerships. They said we, quote, regularly review our partnerships and evaluate clients against applicable laws, regulations, and our internal risk standards. That’s how they have tried to sort of deflect attention from this matter.”

“But it has not succeeded. This was the scene at their shareholders’ meeting in Providence, Rhode Island. And all over these past few days, protests at Citizens Bank branches are asking the bank to drop these investments.”

“From, as I said, headquarters in Providence to Northampton, Massachusetts, to Great Neck, New York, to Saratoga, New York, to Wilmington, Delaware, to Plymouth, New Hampshire, to the Bronx in New York City, to Queensbury, New York, to Roslindale, Massachusetts, to Glen Mills, Pennsylvania. All over the Northeast, people over the last few days have been protesting at Citizens Bank branches and at their shareholders’ meeting. Protesting against Citizens Bank over their involvement with Trump’s immigrant prisons.”

“And I’m showing you things. I’m showing you these things you might not be seeing elsewhere, not only because this is the news. This is an important part of the story of how the United States is responding to this presidency, how Americans are spending their weekends these days now that Donald Trump is back in the White House with this agenda that he has.”

“But I’m also showing you these things are happening because I think it’s important to get our heads around the fact that these folks are winning in this fight. Trump has not been able to open a single one of these warehouse prison camps, despite setting aside $38 billion to try to do it. They have not yet been able to open a single one of these warehouse prison camps and I don’t know if they ever will.”

“They know the public is against them, despite what they say, that does matter to them. They’ve made clear over and over again since the start of this administration, they would prefer to do things that are easy and right now this is not easy. The American people all over the country, even in red states, have made this a thing that is hard for them to do and so they’re not getting it done.”

“And this is important not only in terms of thinking about the tactics of the American people saying no to this president, this phenomenally unpopular, radical president, but it’s also substantively important in terms of what kind of presidency this is going to be because it would be a phenomenally radical new power to give this particular president, right? All these prison facilities to hold thousands, to hold tens of thousands of people who have never been convicted of a crime, that would be an incredibly radical power to give president Donald Trump. And I’m sure that is why the Trump administration would love to do it.”

“But so far, despite their best efforts, it is really not working out for them. And as we will report tonight, just as they are wavering, just as they are really faltering in this effort, just as it seems to be sort of falling apart, as local resistance has tripped them up, as lawsuits have stopped them in their tracks, as they are at their weakest point in trying to do this most radical of things, at this moment of profound weakness and vulnerability for the administration, along now comes a brand new effort to give them a mighty shove to stop this thing once and for all. This is a group that is going by the not at all subtle acronym, GTFO ICE.”

“gtfoice.org. You might think you know what GTFO stands for, but they insist, in this case, it’s Get the Facilities Out. We’re going to be talking with some of the folks behind that nationwide effort tonight in just a few minutes.”

“There’s some real powerhouse folks that are joining forces in that nationwide effort to try to stop this thing once and for all.”

“Since Saturday night, everybody in the news has been focused quite understandably on the scary security breach at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington this weekend, which a man armed with guns and knives got himself and those weapons from his room at the hotel down to the site of the Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton. After the Correspondents’ Dinner was already underway, he sprinted past a security checkpoint headed toward the ballroom itself before he was apprehended. After writings attributed to him reportedly include him describing himself as an assassin and criticizing the president and his administration, the man who was apprehended at the Washington Hilton was charged today with attempted assassination of President Trump.

“And while the administration has confirmed that a Secret Service agent was shot in his bulletproof vest during the incident, he was wounded, we’re told not seriously, it’s not clear whether that Secret Service agent was shot by the guy who’s just been arrested and charged or whether he might have been hit by friendly fire. But regardless, in that incredibly stressful, incredibly high stakes, incredibly dangerous situation for the US. Secret Service, just spare a thought for the additional burden on them at the moment, the additional distraction and nonsense they are having to deal with at the moment, on top of their existentially challenging jobs.”

“Because the United States Secret Service, God bless them, is part of the Department of Homeland Security. And the Department of Homeland Security is a world wide scale level disaster right now. I mean, it is the Department of Homeland Security where we have the guy who says he was teleported to a Waffle House in Georgia, serving as the key official in charge of the government’s disaster response to hurricanes, earthquakes and fires.”

“Why not just teleport the hurricanes to somewhere less dangerous? It is in the Department of Homeland Security where part of the reason they can’t open these Trump prison camps is because, literally, literally, I’m not kidding, in a place like Social Circle, Georgia, where they wanted to put one of these things, they told local officials in writing that local officials didn’t have to worry that this huge prison camp for thousands of people would be drawing too much water from the town’s water supply. They didn’t have to worry about that, they said in writing, because these geniuses planned to use the water at night, at quote, off peak hours.”

“So hey, problem solved. You said we couldn’t use a million gallons a day, so we won’t, we’ll use a million gallons a night. Ta-da, no problem.”

“It is in the Department of Homeland Security, where not one, not two, but three local jurisdictions are either bringing criminal prosecutions against Homeland Security agents for their actions, or they are trying to. In Ramsey County, Minnesota, it’s for dragging this American citizen out into sub-zero temperatures in his underwear, an American citizen. In Hennepin County, Minnesota, it’s for allegedly pointing a loaded gun at the heads of random drivers from a moving vehicle.”

“In Durango, Colorado, it’s for grabbing this woman by the hair and throwing her down an embankment. I mean, these are local prosecutors having to bring criminal charges under state law against federal agents for their wilding against American citizens in the streets of American cities. That’s the Department of Homeland Security right now.”

“It’s in the Department of Homeland Security where the former Secretary of the Department, Kristi Noem, according to the Wall Street Journal, has been refusing to leave the waterfront home reserved for the Coast Guard Commandant, which she took over for herself. She’s refusing to leave it, reportedly, even though she hasn’t been the former Homeland Security Secretary for weeks now since she was fired last month. Quoting from the Wall Street Journal, the current Coast Guard Commandant has told Associates he plans to move into the house, but he can’t because former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has continued using the waterfront house on Joint Base Anacostia-Balling, which is typically designated for the Commandant of the Coast Guard.”

“She’s been using it since she took it over as a cabinet member, but she has continued to use the house even since Trump ousted her from the Homeland Security Department in early March. When the Journal asked the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for comment, they did not receive a response. But I mean, that’s kind of the tenor at the Homeland Security Department these days under Donald Trump.”

“Where the person in charge randomly just takes over a Coast Guard admiral’s house, then refuses to give it back even after she gets fired. And now the Coast Guard commandant, whose house it is supposed to be, is trying to find someone, anyone to help here. That’s my house, isn’t it supposed to be my?”

“It doesn’t that go with the job, isn’t this? I’m in charge of the Coast Guard. It’s in the Department of Homeland Security right now.”

“The Department has just had to confirm formally that a top level counterterrorism official, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism, has been put on leave as a result of a reported Inspector General Investigation. An Inspector General Investigation that has yielded lurid headlines like this one in the New York Post. Quote, DHS bigwig put on leave after ex-boyfriend accuses glitzy terror official of $40,000 sugar baby scheme.”

“Okay. I mean, put aside all the rest of it. I’m just going to say, I think the phrase glitzy terror official is enough.”

“Pretty much all you need to know about the Department of Homeland Security under the leadership of Donald Trump. And listen, the response from the White House thus far to that armed man being tackled at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, thus far the response from the White House has been to further enthuse about the president’s ballroom project. And to say that surely now they ought to be allowed to fire the comedian, Jimmy Kimmel.”

“That’s the right response to… It’s the world’s least serious responses to what was actually a serious security situation. But the agents, the Secret Service agents who actually had to spring into action to contend with this potential catastrophe, who had to physically respond in seconds to this sprinting, armed potential shooter.”

“I mean, they deserve better than to have to do their work within the most catastrophically broken, flagrantly failing part of the government under this president. Americans all over the country are doing their part. They have been doing what they can to stop the worst of what the Homeland Security Department and ICE in particular have been trying to do all around the country.”

“I will tell you those Americans that have been standing up against DHS, they are on the verge of winning one of the most important of those fights. We’ve got much more on that ahead tonight. Stay with us.”

From The Rachel Maddow Show: Americans thwart Trump’s immigrant prisons plan by making