A group of major military contractors, including the founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, presented a proposal to U.S. President Donald Trump for carrying out mass deportations with the help of the private sector.
The plan would include a network of "processing camps" on military bases, a private fleet of 100 planes, and a "small army" of private citizens authorized to make arrests.
The plan, presented in a 26-page document that President Trump's advisors received before his inauguration, has an estimated cost of 25 billion dollars.
The proposal suggests a series of aggressive tactics to quickly deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterm elections, including some that would likely face legal and operational hurdles.
The group, which includes some former immigration officials, is led by Prince, who has close ties with Trump, and Bill Mathews, former operations director of Blackwater, the world's most powerful private army, which operated in Iraq and Afghanistan during the war on terror.
Erik Prince, fundador de Blackwater.
The desire to fulfill the campaign promise on mass deportations opened an opportunity for private contractors, who see in this sector a rare chance for the Trump administration to increase its spending and hire them.
The document states that deporting 12 million people in two years "would require the government to expel nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants per month".
According to the plan, to achieve this pace, "a 600% increase in activity would be necessary. It is unlikely that the government can increase its internal ranks to meet this demand... To process this enormous number of deportations, the government would need to turn to external assistance".
Donald Trump, presidente de Estados Unidos.
White House officials are holding talks with military contractors, while Republicans struggle on Capitol Hill to secure more resources for Trump's immigration offensive.
Betsy DeVos, Prince's sister, was the president's Secretary of Education, while Prince used his connections with Trump to undertake business in the United States and abroad.
The former Blackwater CEO played a significant role in the group's 2019 effort to privately build a wall along the southern U.S. border.
