The Wall Avenue Journal is out with a report making an attempt to trace the staggering $35 billion spent by the Division of Homeland Safety prior to now 12 months. So the place did the cash go? Did you guess “candy no-bid contracts to massive donors and Trump friends”? If that’s the case, pat your self on the again.
It’s not possible to overstate how a lot further money Customs and Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are at the moment swimming in. CBP practically tripled its price range for contracts alone, hitting $15 billion within the final 12 months, practically triple what it needed to throw round earlier than Donald Trump took workplace a second time. ICE has racked up $5.1 billion in new contracts throughout the identical stretch, a leap of 63%.
It’s not shocking to see {that a} bunch of that cash has gone to Anduril Industries and Palantir, two massive tech corporations with weirdo conservative leaders who’ve wooed Trump with massive donations and bought candy no-bid contracts in return.
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Anduril simply bought $511 million for border surveillance, whereas Palantir has notched over $81 million from DHS prior to now 12 months for its assist in turning immigration enforcement right into a dystopian panopticon.
However don’t sleep on the much less well-known corporations keen to line their pockets by serving to the administration commit state-sponsored violence. Fisher Sand and Gravel is right here, because of proprietor Tommy Fisher being a giant Trump donor. In December 2025, the corporate was given practically $2 billion in contracts to construct a border wall, which the administration is now calling a “Good Wall” for some purpose.
Fisher bought literal billions in contracts to assist construct the wall throughout Trump’s first time period as effectively, whereas additionally deciding to construct a personal wall. Positive, Fisher took cash for that wall from the scammy unlawful “We Construct the Wall” group, a grift that netted former Trump adviser Steve Bannon a felony conviction for fraud, however no one’s excellent.
And positive, the wall Fisher constructed was so shoddy that engineers employed to check the fence’s development warned that within the occasion of a significant flood, the wall would “successfully slide, overturn, and change into buoyant.” And positive, there was an enormous and speedy erosion drawback, however why quibble about that?
Fisher has one other in with the administration because of bribe fanatic Tom Homan. The present border czar owns a agency that was a lobbyist for Fisher in 2021 and netted $186K for these efforts. Homan was additionally tapped by Fisher when he determined he needed to promote his non-public wall, which is seemingly a factor one can do?
It’s additionally a wonderful time to be an amoral goblin who operates non-public prisons, provided that DHS is showering cash on these corporations because it seeks to construct extra focus camps. The Wall Avenue Journal reported that CoreCivic and GEO, each non-public jail corporations, and CSI Aviation, which runs a deportation airline, have obtained $2 billion in contracts to this point.
And man, life is good for these corporations. CoreCivic’s 2025 second-quarter revenues had been up virtually 10% from the identical interval in 2024, whereas GEO Group’s revenues jumped 5%.
CoreCivic runs the South Texas Residential Middle in Dilley, Texas, the place 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos was despatched after being kidnapped by ICE brokers in Minnesota. Dilley can be the positioning of a measles outbreak. Detainees report unsafe circumstances, akin to poor consuming water and an absence of medical care.
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In a very modern private-public partnership twist, the ability will promote kids protected bottled water for $1.21. In ache after being brutalized by federal brokers? How about $1.30 for a single Tylenol?
Additionally modern? GEO Group doesn’t simply need to run non-public jails for infants. In addition they present the Trump administration with bounty hunters to trace down immigrants. Gotta preserve the grift diversified.
Every part about what DHS is doing right here is prohibited and unconstitutional and immoral—however hey, at the least this can be very worthwhile for the very worst individuals.
