{"id":46630,"date":"2026-02-10T12:44:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:44:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=46630"},"modified":"2026-02-10T12:44:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:44:47","slug":"us-military-helping-trump-to-build-massive-network-of-concentration-camps-navy-contract-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/02\/10\/us-military-helping-trump-to-build-massive-network-of-concentration-camps-navy-contract-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"US Military Helping Trump to Build Massive Network of \u2018Concentration Camps,\u2019 Navy Contract Reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Immigration<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In an aerial view, an inmate walks through the courtyard at the Bluebonnet Detention Center on May 13, 2025, in Anson, Texas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Homeland Security is using a repurposed $55 billion Navy contract to convert warehouses into makeshift jails and plan sprawling tent cities in remote areas.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feb 02, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of immigration<\/a> agents\u2019 killings of three US citizens within a matter of weeks, the Department of Homeland Security is quietly moving forward with a plan to expand its capacity for mass detention by using a military contract to create what Pablo Manr\u00edquez, the author of the immigration news site Migrant Insider<\/em> calls<\/a> \u201ca nationwide \u2018ghost network\u2019 of concentration camps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, Manr\u00edquez reported<\/a> that \u201ca massive Navy contract vehicle, once valued at $10 billion, has ballooned to a staggering $55 billion ceiling to expedite President Donald Trump\u2019s \u2018mass deportation\u2019 agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is the expansion of a contract first reported on in October by\u00a0CNN,\u00a0<\/em>which\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that DHS was \u201cfunneling $10 billion through the Navy to help facilitate the construction of a sprawling network of migrant detention centers across the US in an arrangement aimed at getting the centers built faster, according to sources and federal contracting documents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/PabloReports\/status\/2018153444570181776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2018153444570181776%7Ctwgr%5Eff50f2c979b2ad4c1090ff76d3f85975cad46d6f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Fmilitary-contract-concentration-camps<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report describes the money as being allocated for \u201cnew detention centers,\u201d which \u201care likely to be primarily soft-sided tents and may or may not be built on existing Navy installations, according to the sources familiar with the initiative. DHS has often leaned on soft-sided facilities to manage influxes of migrants<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a source familiar with the project, \u201cthe goal is for the facilities to house as many as 10,000 people each, and are expected to be built in Louisiana, Georgia, Pennsylvania<\/a>, Indiana, Utah<\/a>, and Kansas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Manr\u00edquez reports that the project has just gotten much bigger after a Navy grant was repurposed weeks ago. It was authorized through the Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract (WEXMAC), a flexible purchasing system<\/a> that the government uses to quickly move military equipment to dangerous and remote parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contract<\/a> states that the money is being repurposed for \u201cTITUS,\u201d an abbreviation for \u201cTerritorial Integrity of the United States<\/a>.\u201d While it\u2019s not unusual for Navy contracts to be used for expenditures aimed at protecting the nation, Manr\u00edquez warned that such a staggering movement of funds for domestic detention points to something ominous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis $45 billion increase, published just weeks ago, converts the US into a \u2018geographic region\u2019 for expeditionary military-style detention,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt signals a massive, long-term escalation in the government\u2019s capacity to pay for detention and deportation logistics. In the world of federal contracting, it is the difference between a temporary surge and a permanent infrastructure<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He says the use of the military funding mechanism is meant to disburse funds quickly, without the typical bidding war among contractors, which would typically create a period of public scrutiny. Using the Navy contract means that new projects can be created with \u201ctask orders,\u201d which can be turned around almost immediately, when \u201cspecific dates and locations are identified\u201d by DHS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means the infrastructure is currently a \u2018ghost\u2019 network that can be materialized anywhere in the US the moment a site is picked,\u201d Manr\u00edquez wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid its push to deport 1 million people each year, the White House<\/a> has said it needs to dramatically increase the scale of its detention apparatus to add more beds for those who are arrested. But Manr\u00edquez said documents suggest \u201cthis isn\u2019t just about bed space; it\u2019s about the rapid deployment of self-contained cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to tent cities capable of housing thousands, contract line items<\/a> include facilities meant for sustained living\u2014including closed tents likely for medical treatment and industrial-sized grills for food preparation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also include expenditures on \u201cForce Protection\u201d equipment, like earth-filled defensive barriers, 8-foot-high CONEX box walls, and \u201cWeather Resistant\u201d guard shacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, said<\/a> the contract\u2019s provision of materials meant to deal with medical needs and death was \u201cextra chilling.\u201d According to the report, \u201cservices extend to \u2018Medical Waste Management,\u2019 with specific protocols for biohazard incinerators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Graphic from Bloomberg<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new reporting from Migrant Insider <\/em>comes on the heels of a report<\/a> last week from Bloomberg <\/em>that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> (ICE) has used some of the $45 billion to purchase warehouses in nearly two dozen remote communities, each meant to house thousands of detainees, which it said \u201ccould be the largest expansion of such detention capacity in US history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plans have been met with backlash from locals, even in the largely Republican-leaning areas where they are being constructed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This month, demonstrators protested warehouse conversions in New Hampshire, Utah, Texas<\/a> and Georgia after the Washington Post<\/a> <\/em>published<\/a> an earlier version of the conversion plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mid-January, a planned tour for contractors of a potential warehouse site in San Antonio was canceled after protesters showed up the same day, according to a person familiar with the scheduled visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Salt Lake City, the Ritchie Group, a local family business that owns the warehouse ICE identified as a future \u201cmega center\u201d jail, said it had \u201cno plans to sell or lease the property in question to the federal government\u201d after protesters showed up<\/a> at their offices to pressure them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

On January 20, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) joined hundreds of protesters outside a warehouse in Hagerstown, Maryland, that was set to be converted into a facility that will hold 1,500 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator called the construction of it and other detention facilities \u201cone of the most obscene, one of the most inhumane, one of the most illegal operations being carried out by this Trump administration<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reports of a new influx of funding from the Navy come as Democrats in Congress face pressure<\/a> to block tens of billions in new funding for DHS and ICE during budget<\/a> negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Congress does nothing, DHS will continue to thrive,\u201d Manr\u00edquez said. \u201cWith three more years pre-funded, plus a US Navy as a benefactor, Secretary Kristi Noem\u2014or any potential successor\u2014has the legal and financial runway to keep the business of creating ICE concentration camps overnight in American communities running long after any news cycle fades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an aerial view, an inmate walks through the courtyard at the Bluebonnet Detention Center on May 13, 2025, in Anson, Texas \u00a0(Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images) The Department of Homeland Security is using a repurposed $55 billion Navy contract to convert warehouses into makeshift jails and plan sprawling tent… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46630"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46631,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46630\/revisions\/46631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}