All the disruption . . .
Congress can come in, they just can talk to anyone locked inside ICE detention Centers
May 13, 2026
Happy Wednesday.
Wanna start with a great new piece from Andrea Castillo at the LA Times about a new ICE policy, written and signed the day California members of Congress showed up to CoreCivic’s Otay Mesa Detention Center, barring lawmakers from talking to people inside without two day’s advance notice.
Congressional oversight is one means of shedding light on what’s happening. State and local police power is another. In San Diego, a federal judge leaned toward granting health and safety inspectors access to the facility after San Diego County Commissioners authorized a lawsuit to force CoreCivic and ICE’s hand.
In Washington state, Governor Bob Ferguson and the Washington AG sued in federal court to force another ICE contractor, the GEO Group, to allow state health inspectors into the Northwest Detention Center. GEO previously sued unsuccessfully to block Washington officials from enforcing a state law requiring such oversight.
All this oversight gets under some folks’ skin. GEO head honcho George Zoley just told investors during the company’s latest earnings call that he believes all these pesky lawsuits are “unwarranted” and “unconstitutional.” Courts have thus far mostly disagreed.
Speaking of GEO, the Times reports former GEO consultant Tom Homan intends to tap former GEO Executive Vice President David Venturella will take the helm at ICE once Todd Lyons steps down. Politico confirmed, and DHS issued a statement announcing Venturella’s appointment. Venturella cashed out all his GEO stock last year before coming back into a special government employee roll. It’s still not at the level he complained about it being when I deposed him years ago.
Thwarted at nearly every turn in exercise their traditional police powers over billion dollar corporates, many states have passed legislation aimed at reducing the ability of local governments to contract with ICE and its profiteers for detention space within their territory. We might view these as a burgeoning class of Free States—Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, Maryland (did I miss anyone?)—organizing themselves and their laws against the capture, torture, wage theft and forced labor, rape and sexual abuse, and death that regularly occurs in these places.
New Mexico became the latest to pass such a law. Last week, the DOJ filed suit. Locals are not backing down. How could they?
Maybe you’re not a member of congress or state legislator. Maybe you’re not even an attorney general or governor. Doesn’t mean you can’t meaningfully engage in documenting and disrupting harm inside ICE detention centers. You could start by making sure you, your employee retirement account, your union, and any democratically accountable government entity you help fund divests from these companies. If you’re curious where to start on that front, check out this webinar:
These efforts hit the profiteers where they feel it most: The bottom line. There’s an active campaign demanding Citizens Bank divest from these companies. Last week, customers began pulling their money out. There are also boycott lists.
ICE says it doesn’t want lawmakers inside facilities because of the disruptions they cause. Claims they’re just thinly veiled media hits. (Pot, meet Kettle).
The harder part, the part fewer in the masses are willing or able to do, is actually engaging with people inside and their communities. Once you start talking to folks about what they’re experiencing, you realize this whole ethnic cleansing project doesn’t just have a totalizing impact on society, budgets, politics, and law. It has a totalizing impact on who you are and want to be as a human. Because if the price of being free and alive in this country is subjecting millions of people in cages to forced labor, torture, rape, and death, perhaps it’s time to invest in another product.
Neguse and his legal team will tear this to shreds in record time.
Thank you for the webinar link!