Trump’s Gulag

The U.S. president has filled a couple of hundred concentration camps with people he hates

Tim Hüfner on Unsplash

Officially, they are called immigration detention centres, in reality, they are concentration camps.

Since Trump returned to power they have been stuffed with people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and new facilities have been built to handle the overflow.

Trump’s Immigration Policy

Donald Trump is a racist; a sickening catalogue of comments and actions proves this beyond question.

“Why is it we only take people from shithole countries, right? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few? … From Denmark. Do you mind sending us a few people? Send us some nice people. Do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia, places that are a disaster, right? Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.”

Donald Trump, December 9, 2025

On returning to office in January 2025, Trump began an aggressive policy of arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants that has swept up documented immigrants and citizens as well.

The determining factor in making apprehensions is the colour of the person’s skin; if it’s other than white the handcuffs come out.

Under Trump, 12,000 ICE agents have been hired. Masked, unidentifiable, and heavily armed they have been turned loose on American streets.

They have been told that no matter what they do they have absolute immunity from prosecution, which is untrue. They are constrained by the law as all other people are.

However, Trump’s Department of Justice seems reluctant to charge violent ICE agents, no matter how egregious their actions.

During 2025, 32 people died in ICE custody and, in January 2026, ICE agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis. No charges.

Here’s William S. Becker, writing for The Hill:

“The administration’s actions are far from surgical. Its violent tactics violate the laws and constitutional rights of citizens and non-citizens alike … It is difficult, then, to avoid the conclusion that Trump’s real agenda serves the white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, accelerationists, and other hate-filled groups he has welcomed into his base. His goal is not to purge the nation of violent aliens; rather, it appears to be ethnic and racial cleansing.”

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Delaney Hall

Delaney Hall is a detention centre in Newark, New Jersey, and it serves here as an exemplar for many others.

It is operated under contract with ICE by the GEO Group, a private prison company based in Florida.

The GEO Group was founded by George Zoley, who is currently its CEO. In 2025, the company made a profit of $254 million and gave generously to support the election campaigns of Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

Delaney Hall can accommodate almost 1,200 people and there have been protests and a hunger strike among detainees.

The New Jersey Monitor reports that “Detained migrants said they found live worms in their meals of beans and salad. They also complained of crowded rooms with no air conditioning, and they told stories of their cases being ignored by judges or bonds being denied, all in an attempt to force them to self-deport.”

While living conditions may be appalling, there is a bigger issue. In May 2026, the prisoners released a letter that said, in part:

“We see with deep helplessness and frustration that our due process, rights, and defense have been violated, disregarding benefits granted under the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments of the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

“We are certain that we are not being processed equally under immigration laws and the Constitution … We have seen judges in this detention center who are ready to carry out deportations and mass expulsions without properly reviewing cases. We live with anguish and fear of appearing in court. We are witnessing how judges are disregarding decisions of federal judges, for example not honoring HABEAS CORPUS rulings decided by a FEDERAL judge, depriving us of our liberty.”

Senator Andy Kim visited Delaney Hall in May 2026 and what he found disturbed him and prompted him to say, “What we saw here is unfortunately just what we see all over the country.”

He talked with detainees, the people Trump calls “the worst of the worst.” However Kim told New York Magazine:

“The people I met were a pregnant woman that’s not getting the medical care that she needs … an 18-year-old high-school senior who just wants to go to prom and graduate. A stage-three lung-cancer patient who actually wants to leave the country.”

But, these people are all imprisoned unnecessarily in poor conditions. Unnecessarily, that is, unless you are the GEO Group which gets paid a per diem fee for each additional day the detainees are held.

Senator Kim notes that the GEO Group could hire more doctors (currently, there is one to handle the medical needs of more than 800 detainees), provide better food, fix the filth and extreme heat. “But,” says Kim, “that’s less profit for GEO Group.”

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Who Benefits From Migrant Abuse?

Trump and his followers believe they gain by ridding the country of people the president says are “poisoning the blood of our country.” So, that includes the 77 million people who voted for Trump in November 2024 after he made that comment.

Obviously, GEO Group benefits. Here’s prisonlegalnews.org:

“Days after Trump’s 2024 reelection — which private prison companies funded to the tune of over $1 million — [GEO Group chief George] Zoley hailed the ‘unprecedented opportunity’ of the incoming administration’s mass deportation campaign. ‘The GEO Group was built for this unique moment in our company’s [and] country’s history, and the opportunity that it will bring,’ he beamed.”

The 22,000 ICE agents (a 120% increase in 2025) benefit, not least from the $50,000 signing bonus.

According to legalclarity.org, “An ICE agent’s total compensation in 2026 ranges from roughly $77,000 for a new hire in a lower-cost area to well over $200,000 for a senior agent stationed in an expensive metro.”

Melissa Hamilton, a professor of law and criminal justice at the University of Surrey in England, tells us about the kind of person ICE is trying to recruit into its ranks:

“ICE’s recruitment messaging, especially recent campaigns, appears designed to resonate with people who are responsive to patriotic and national-security themes. It also appears designed to appeal to the MAGA base and the implicit America First messaging within it.”

Here’s a line from a typical ICE recruitment ad:

“One homeland, one people, one heritage. Remember who you are, American.”

That’s a slogan that would have fit neatly into Germany’s hiring campaign for people to join the Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts) in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Sources

“Donald Trump in His Own Words — the Year in Racism and Misogyny.” Melissa Hellman, The Guardian, December 29, 2025.

“Racism Is at the Heart of Trump’s Immigration Agenda.” William S. Becker, The Hill, January 26, 2026.

“Who Owns GEO Group? Delaney Hall Operator Under Scrutiny Over ICE Contracts.” Billal Rahman, Newsweek, June 1, 2026.

“Newark Migrant Jail Detainees Launch Hunger, Labor Strike over Conditions Behind Bars.” Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor, May 22, 2026.

“Immigrant Owner of ICE Detention Center Doubles His Money With Trump.” Michelle Dally, Colorado Times Recorder, March 13, 2025.

“Andy Kim Wants Delaney Hall to Outrage You.” Nia Prater, New York Magazine, June 1, 2026.

“Trump Says Immigrants Are ‘Poisoning the Blood of Our Country.’ Biden Campaign Likens Comments to Hitler.” Ginger Gibson, NBC News, December 17, 2023.

“Private Prison Firm GEO Group Reports Record $254 Million Profit After New ICE Contracts.” Brett Wilkins, prisonlegalnews.org. March 1, 2026.

How Are ICE Agents Recruited, and Who Are They? Matt Pearson, Die Welt, January 17, 2026.

“ICE Agent Salary: What Federal Agents Actually Earn.” legalclarity.org, April 1, 2026.

© Copyright Rupert Taylor 2026