THE SET-UP: Judd Legum of Popular Information published a simple graph today that raises some complicated questions about the rapid growth of ICE:
That red line represents, as Popular Information reports, a 700% spike in purchases. And it’s solid information, too. Legum went to the Federal Procurement Data System, crunched the numbers and found “that ICE has increased spending on ‘small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing’ by 700% compared to 2024 levels.”
Although the majority of the “small arms” purchased were guns and armor, Legum noted that “there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and ‘guided missile warheads and explosive components.’”
Yeah, you read that right—”chemical weapons and ’guided missile warheads and explosive components.’”
Chemical weapons might simply be tear gas. At least, let’s hope that’s all it is. But “guided missile warheads”? “Explosive components”? Sure seems like overkill given ICE’s stated mission.
So, I poked around and found “guided missile warheads” closely associated with PGMs—Precision-Guided Munitions. Here’s how the Department of Defense defines PGMs:
[A] PGM is a “guided weapon intended to destroy a point target and minimize collateral damage.” In contrast to unguided munitions such as certain artillery rounds and rockets, a guided munition can change its flight trajectory to correct for targeting errors, weather, or other issues, and to increase the munition’s probability of striking a target. Also known as “smart bombs,” precision-guided munitions leverage guidance components such as inertial measurement units, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, laser seekers, and millimeter-wave radar seekers.
Right. That’s what comes to mind for most when we read or hear the words “guided missile warheads.” And that’s why it’s worth asking what the hell they are up to. Yes, there have been two notable attacks on ICE with firearms … and we’ve seen “resistance” ranging from the merely uncooperative to the loudly defiant, including attempts to block ICE vehicles on city streets … but America’s secretive police have yet to face an reinforced bunker, mobile rocket launchers or a column of heavy artillery.
So, I looked a little more and found Skyhawk Aviation … a company that appears to be a military-themed version of Grainger. Here’s their intro:
Skyhawk Aviation provides parts for aerospace, aviation, military ground support and maritime. Given our responsiveness, knowledge, quality control and competitive pricing, we’re the go-to company for the U.S. Armed Forces, the DOD and major defense contractors.
I guess they can add ICE to that list of customers … because they carry “guided missile warheads and explosive components.” Take a look:
…and…
OK. The next question is … are they planning a campaign of preemptive airstrikes on day laborers, street vendors or landscapers?
It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous. But things once thought ridiculous are becoming reality on a daily basis. No one anticipated the United States would be summarily executing foreign nationals on speedboats. But the US is doing that … no due process, little information and no oversight … just precision guided munitions targeting suspects somehow identified and condemned by Pete Hegseth. I say Pete is “somehow identifying” suspects, but we really haven’t been told much about the process.
Apparently, Admiral Alvin Holsey saw something or was asked to do something that led to his sudden departure from US Southern Command last Thursday. We don’t have the details behind Holsey’s departure, either, but I don’t think it’s unfair or unwise to wonder if Holsey was given an unlawful order. It does increasingly feel like the fate of the republic will turn on whether or not the US Military will refuse to carry out an order targeting “the enemy within.”
Of course, “the enemy within” is ICE’s reason for being and its reason for being both cruel and unusual. Intimidation is a big part of their remit and, therefore, the procurement of anything more that handguns and rifles seems … risky. Particularly with ICE’s move to add thousands of employees. In 2023, approximately 21,000 people worked for ICE. That number held steady through 2024 and into the start the his year. But now that ICE is rolling out $50k bonuses, student loan forgiveness and the opportunity to crack skulls with Dean Cain, over 150,000 Americans have applied and 18,000 of them got job offers.
This growing, secretive police force is, when taken together with the immigration enforcement capabilities, tantamount to a standing army comparable to many of the world’s best-funded militaries. The total immigration-related package passed by Congress in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is $170 billion. Only the US and China spend more on defense. In These Times recently broke it down, noting that the $170 billion…
…includes $45 billion for expanding detention capacity, and $29.9 billion for ICE removal and enforcement (including new ICE officers and transportation costs). This brings the budget for detention facilities to about $14 billion per year, about triple the current budget.
Of that, the…
…$14 billion annual budget for detentions alone — just a portion of the new spending — is more than the total military spending of 124 countries, including Norway, Pakistan, Denmark, Greece, and Iran.
And, what’s more, if…
…the immigration enforcement apparatus of the United States were its own national military, it would be the 13th most heavily funded in the world. This puts it higher than the national militaries of Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, Turkey and Spain — and just below Israel.
If you planned on declaring war on “the enemy within,” but you’re unsure how the US Military will respond when you bark out unconstitutional orders, it certain makes sense to have a de facto army of ideologically committed enforcers empowered to operate with impunity.
And that’s the scenario a group of “current and former national security officials” laid out to ProPublica in a story published over the weekend. It’s a follow-up of sorts to a far-too-overlooked story ProPublica ran last week detailing the harassment and abuse 170 US citizens experienced at the hands of ICE. The follow-up on Saturday paints an even bleaker picture of a “violent, shadowy Federal police force” with “virtually no limits on what [they] can do to achieve President Donald Trump’s goal of mass deportations.”
Here’s the full passage:
They describe the legions of masked immigration officers operating in near-total anonymity on the orders of the president as the crossing of a line that had long set the United States apart from the world’s most repressive regimes. ICE, in their view, has become an unfettered and unaccountable national police force. The transformation, the officials say, unfolded rapidly and in plain sight. Trump’s DHS appointees swiftly dismantled civil rights guardrails, encouraged agents to wear masks, threatened groups and state governments that stood in their way, and then made so many arrests that the influx overwhelmed lawyers trying to defend immigrants taken out of state or out of the country.
And although they are reluctant to predict the future, the current and former officials worry that this force assembled from federal agents across the country could eventually be turned against any groups the administration labels a threat.
One former senior DHS official who was involved in oversight said that what is happening on American streets today “gives me goosebumps.”
That former senior DHS official isn’t the only American who gets goosebumps when they hear the ominous sound of goosesteps. - jp
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