Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America.
The Proposal Details
The proposal, exclusively obtained by POLITICO, targets “criminal illegal aliens” and aims to skirt U.S. immigration laws by designating part of the prison as American territory.
It’s unclear how seriously the White House is considering the plan by Prince, who has drawn scrutiny for his firm’s role in a deadly massacre in Iraq two decades ago. The proposal would give Prince’s group an unprecedented and potentially highly lucrative role in an expanded version of a transnational operation.
The group has had multiple talks with administration officials, and the ideas laid out in the proposal are likely to be a top subject in the bilateral meetings with El Salvador at the White House next week.
Administration officials have discussed the idea of the U.S. owning some of the prison complex, continuing to weigh options to get “dangerous people as far away from the continental U.S. as possible.”
Prince’s Role and Controversies
The proposal would put Prince in charge of an extraordinary privatization effort, using his company to handle logistics and ferrying detainees to El Salvador’s prison.
Prince’s group, in partnership with El Salvador, plans to gather “100,000 of the worst criminal offenders” from U.S. prisons, holding them at a 10,000-person detention camp and flying them to El Salvador. The group aims to access government immigration files to determine immigration status.
The group also seeks a role in immigration courts, a potential legal challenge among several elements in the proposal.
Legal and Operational Challenges
The proposal includes sample language for a “Treaty of Cession” to make a portion of the prison complex U.S. territory. The setup could help the Trump administration navigate legal hurdles with the president’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.
However, legal questions persist, with potential challenges from groups like the ACLU. The proposal acknowledges the likelihood of judicial testing and potential issues with deporting U.S. citizens in the future.
Meeting and Agreements
Monday’s meeting between the White House and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is expected to discuss this proposal among other immigration issues. The U.S. has already reached agreements with El Salvador to imprison alleged gang members, with payments made and discussions ongoing to expand this partnership.
Prince’s past proposals for mass deportations and his group’s ties to the U.S. government highlight the contentious nature of this privatization effort, which could have far-reaching implications for immigration policy and enforcement.
Stay tuned for updates on how this proposal progresses and the potential impact on immigration practices and legal frameworks.
