The latest episode of legendary tech and culture journalist Kara Swisher’s podcast, On With Kara Swisher, focuses on the boom in ICE detention across the country under this administration. I am grateful that Kara had me on the show and honored to be a part of the conversation alongside Ximena Bustillo, who covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for NPR, and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
We covered a lot of ground, including the rapid expansion of the ICE detention system, the administration’s strategy of converting commercial warehouses into mass detention facilities, the collapse of oversight infrastructure, the surge in detained deaths, and what the appointment of a new DHS secretary might or might not change. It was one of the most wide-ranging public conversations I’ve had about where the detention system is heading and why it matters. I encourage you to listen to it and share it with friends and family.
A big thank you to Kara’s team for how smoothly they handled the whole process from start to finish. The communication and coordination on their end were excellent, and it made for a great experience.
Episode Title: “Inside the ICE Detention Boom: Soaring Abuse Claims and Little Oversight.” Description: While the Department of Homeland Security publicly claims to be resetting its tactics around immigration arrests, it’s been building out its capacity to house detained migrants by buying up almost a dozen warehouses. If opened, they would dramatically expand a system that’s seen more than 40 deaths since Trump took office and is facing staggering accounts of human rights abuses. Kara speaks with three experts who’ve been tracking the Trump administration’s detention boom: Ximena Bustillo, Homeland Security Department and immigration policy correspondent for NPR; Austin Kocher, a political and legal geographer and a research assistant professor at the Syracuse University who tracks immigration enforcement data on his Substack; and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.