Is It Profiteering?

(This reminds me of Halliburton coming into a few lucrative contracts before and during the GWOT. -A.)

Tech, defense and support services companies make millions off new ICE contracts

By Indy Scholtens May 28, 2025 11:09 am

^{Palantir employees, including CEO Alex Karp, made millions in campaign donations in 2024. In April, the company won a $30 million contract to develop software to help ICE manage deportations. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)}

In early April, hundreds of military and tech companies exhibited their products at the Border Security Expo, which brought “government leaders, law enforcement officials, and industry innovators” together. During the two-day event in Phoenix, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said he would like ICE to operate more like a business: “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.” He added that “the badge and guns” should do “the badge-and-gun stuff, everything else, let’s contract out.”

The event illustrates how companies are rushing to secure government contracts as the Trump administration ramps up its spending on ICE to reach its deportation goals. The House approved a spending bill in early May that sets aside $175 billion for immigration enforcement – about 22 times ICE’s annual budget – and includes $45 billion for detention, $14.4 billion for transportation and removal operations and $8 billion for hiring new ICE staff. The Trump administration ordered DHS to hire an additional 20,000 ICE officers.

OpenSecrets previously reported on the private prisons and air carriers that are poised to benefit from President Donald Trump’s plans to increase deportation. This final article in the series focuses on other for-profit companies benefiting from deportations.

New contracts

In April, ICE awarded software company Palantir Technologies a $29.8 million contract for developing ImmigrationOS, a tool to help ICE with identifying and prioritizing the deportations of individuals who are considered a risk, such as violent criminals; tracking who is self-deporting; and managing cases from the individual’s entry through detention, hearing and deportation. Palantir is expected to provide a prototype of the ImmigrationOS tool by Sept. 25. The tool is an extension of systems that Palantir has already delivered as part of its almost $128 million contract signed in 2022.
Deployed Resources, an emergency management company that has provided mobile restrooms, sinks and tents to music festivals such as Lollapalooza and emergency relief following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Sandy, has been awarded over $4 billion in government contracts to build and operate border tents since 2016, according to ProPublica. The company earned a $3 billion contract with ICE in 2022 for running tent detention facilities around the border. On April 11, ProPublica reported that ICE awarded a new contract worth up to $3.8 billion to Deployed Resources. On April 17, however, the billion-dollar contract was canceled for reasons unknown. The next day, ICE submitted a $5 million proposal for Deployed Resources to deliver unarmed guard services for 30 days at an ICE facility in El Paso, Texas. ProPublica also revealed that ICE has housed detainees at a tent facility in El Paso operated by Deployed Resources since March. The facility was previously used by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but the Trump administration used the Department of Defense to award Deployed Resources an unannounced $140 million contract to run the site for ICE, citing the declaration of an emergency at the southern border. The facility can house up to 1,000 detainees, and ICE started transferring detainees on March 10, according to ProPublica.
Axon Enterprise, a company that develops technology and weapons for public safety, law enforcement and the military, took part in the Border Expo. The company was awarded a year-long $5.1 million contract on March 10 to deliver body cams and equipment. A day later, the company was awarded a $22,376 contract to deliver tasers that have been used specifically in deportations. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division bought $2.6 million worth of Axon tasers in 2020 and 2021.
Parsons Government Services, a “technology provider,” was also at the Border Expo. The company was awarded a contract worth up to $8.9 million for COVID-19 testing supplies in February, as well as an $87,467 contract in March and a $118,758 contract in April with ICE, both to provide “mobile biometric collection devices in support of the biometric identification transnational migration alert program.” The company is already wrapping up a one-year, $4.2 million contract for the transportation and guard services of ICE detainees in Newark.
General Dynamics, a weapons company, was awarded new $101,034 and $80,050 contracts in March to purchase non-lethal ammunition for training purposes for ICE’s Office of Firearms and Tactical Programs.
Sig Sauer Inc., a firearms company, was awarded more than $200,000 worth of contracts with ICE for firearms and firearm accessories in the first months of 2025: $57,163 in February, and $19,824, $35,106 and $90,854 contracts in April.
Paragon Professional Services, was awarded a $1.1 million contract on April 1 for transporting people who are detained by ICE in the New York City area and a $458,400 month-long contract to provide transportation of ICE detainees in Baltimore on April 17.

Follow the money

Palantir spent $5.8 million on lobbying the federal government in 2024. The company’s employees also made almost $5 million in campaign contributions during the 2024 elections. The largest contributions included $1 million to Make America Great Again Inc, $1 million to MAGA Inc and $344,914 to the Republican National Committee. Palantir’s CEO, Alexander Karp, contributed to Democratic as well as Republican candidates during the 2024 elections. In 2023, Karp contributed $163,800 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $154,920 to their Republican counterparts. Karp increased his contributions to the Republican Party after Trump was elected: On Dec. 12, 2024, Karp contributed $1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-supporting super PAC. In the first months of 2025, Karp contributed $360,000 to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) Grow the Majority PAC and a combined $310,100 to the National Republican Congressional Committee. Palantir also spent $170,000 on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025.
Even though the company has no lobbying history, Deployed Resources has hired more than a dozen former government insiders, according to ProPublica, including some high-ranking ICE officials. Marlen Pineiro joined Deployed recently, after working for the Department of Homeland Security in Central America developing policies with Panama, and a decade as a senior official at ICE, according to her LinkedIn profile. A month after Trump’s victory, former ICE field office director Sean Ervin announced he was joining Deployed Resources as a senior adviser for strategic initiatives.
Axon Enterprise contributed to both the Democratic and Republican parties. The CEO, Patrick Smith, donated $25,000 to the Scalise Leadership Fund of 2024, a joint fundraising committee run by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.). James Norton, the vice president of the company, contributed several thousand dollars to Republicans in the past two years. Axon Enterprise spent $1.5 million on lobbying in 2024 and $510,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a $180,000 increase compared to Q1 2024. One of Axon’s lobbyists, Helen Tolar, also served as a transition advisor to Doug Collins, Trump’s secretary of veterans affairs.
Employees and PACs related to Parsons Government Services’ mother corporation, Parsons Corporation, contributed $592,053 in the 2024 elections, with $27,715 to Kamala Harris and $13,076 to Donald Trump. The company spent $950,000 on lobbying in 2024, mostly on defense issues. In the first quarter of 2025, the company ramped up its lobbying to $590,000, a $370,000 increase from the same quarter in 2024. Parsons Corporation has its own PAC, which spent $247,600 on Republican federal candidates in the 2024 elections, and $151,250 on Democratic candidates.
Sig Sauer Inc.’s PAC contributed $87,715 in the 2024 elections, mostly to Republican candidates. The company’s CEO, Ron Cohen, contributed $25,000 in 2024 to Preserve America, a super PAC supporting Donald Trump. The company spent $530,000 on lobbying in 2024 and $260,000 in the first quarter of 2025, a $180,000 increase from the first quarter in 2024. It did not lobby on specific bills in 2024.
General Dynamics contributed $3.4 million in the election, both to Republicans as well as Democrats. The company also spent $12.2 million on lobbying in 2024, mostly regarding defense issues. It spent $3.3 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2025, a $340,000 increase from the previous year.
Paragon Professional Services LLC is a subsidiary of Bering Straits Assn., which contributed $15,305 in the 2024 elections, both on Democratic as well as Republican candidates. The company lobbied to the tune of $280,000 in 2024, mostly on the Coast Guard Authorization Act and the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. It has spent $60,000 on lobbying in 2025 so far. CEO Gail Schubert spent several thousand dollars on Republican candidates in Alaska.

Why does it matter?

(snip-It Matters! MORE on the page; click through above on the article headline.)

Some Memes.

More Republican “Greatness”

Trump and Pete Hegseth inspiring Islamic State recruitment propaganda

Experts say president’s dismantling of world order, rapport with Netanyahu and choice of Pentagon chief benefiting IS

Donald Trump has a long and colorful history with the Islamic State. He incorrectly blamed the founding of IS on his predecessor, said its infamous leader “died like a dog” while announcing his assassination, and rallied an international coalition that successfully ended its so-called caliphate.

So far, in his second presidency, his administration has much less to do with IS. But the terror group has still benefited from him.

Experts tell the Guardian that IS is capitalizing on Trump’s dismantling of the international order, his affinity for Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, and most of all – his most controversial cabinet appointment – in its recruitment propaganda.

In the US, IS supporters consuming that online messaging have become bona fide security threats in recent months, with a string of incidents dating back to before the presidential election.

On New Year’s Day in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a 13-year veteran of the US army, used a truck to kill fourteen partygoers in the name of IS. Earlier in May, Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, an ex-national guardsman, was arrested and charged with plotting a mass shooting at a military base near Detroit, on behalf of the group.

“The January 1 New Orleans attack and subsequent IS-linked arrests in the country demonstrate the continued influence the organization can project into the US,” said Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, who has tracked the terrorist group for several years.

“These incidents also highlight how IS leverages the online space through social media and messaging applications to spread its ideology and inspire supporters to plot attacks.”

Part of that, as Webber explained, was persistently defining the US as a “crusader” state – the name jihadists have long used for all western countries.

But secretary of defense Pete Hegseth’s tattoos, referential to those pan-European medieval invaders, have fueled IS propaganda dispersed on Rocket.Chat – a recruitment platform the terror group uses to communicate with its followers and recruits.

An April IS-article, titled Clear Evidence in Ink, zeroed in on Hegseth’s ink, which features crosses associated with crusaders and another on his arm that reads “infidel” or “non-believer” in Arabic.

The term also became better known among war on terror soldiers, who, like Hegseth, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a pejorative for themselves.

“This takes us back to the media stir just days ago when the American ‘crusader’ secretary of defense published photos of himself with the word ‘kafir’ written on his arm in Arabic, alongside other explicit phrases glorifying the crusades!” said the IS propaganda, amid a backdrop of Hegseth’s tattooed chest and arms.

“Events like these, orchestrated by Allah’s wisdom, serve as warnings and clear evidence of the true nature of the war waged by Jews and Christians against us – it is a deeply rooted religious war.”

On Rocket.Chat, pro-IS users fervently responded.

“What more do you want as proof that they want to wipe us all together?” wrote one user underneath an image of Hegseth’s tattoos.

Other fodder tapped for its digital propaganda, is Trump’s associations with Netanyahu and the IDF’s continued flattening of Gaza, which several experts and governments have called a modern-day genocide.

IS images and articles call for “revenge for the Muslims in Gaza” and the war, which has become one of its most valuable recruitment topics.

IS also sees the stream of international tariffs unleashed by the Trump administration as a sign the west and its power structures are unravelling. As another IS article described how “the reckless Trump has repeatedly claimed victory over jihad, yet now he is preoccupied with fighting German cars and Chinese goods” and stoking “commercial wars” that would lead to the demise of “kafir nations”.

Combinations of these topics are mainstay recruitment hooks that IS and its predecessor organization, al-Qaida, have used for years attracting men into its ranks. IS is in a rebuilding stage as Syria – once a base for its most successful era – has vowed to banish the group and other jihadist elements from operating within its borders, as the nascent government seeks rapprochement with the US.

But other IS chapters have shown they are attracting Americans, foreigners, and locals to their cause, by peddling anti-US messaging.

“Trump and the US have been monitored by [IS-Khorasan] Pashto, Urdu and Farsi channels specifically referring to developments in Syria and Afghanistan,” said Riccardo Valle, the director of research at the Islamabad-based publication the Khorasan Diary and an expert on the group’s Afghan wing.

“[IS-K] continue to foster the idea that there is no difference between Afghanistan and Syria trajectories and that both are puppets in the hands of the US, Russia, and China.”

The IS-K branch has shown its reach inside the US, too. An Afghan national and a co-conspirator were arrested in October, after the FBI disrupted an IS-K sponsored plot to attack a mass gathering on election day.

The justice department also described in 2024 court documents that IS-Somalia, an upstart branch which has become the intense focus of Pentagon airstrikes, had attracted an American foreign fighter who was in contact with their recruiters.

“IS-Somalia is becoming more internationally ambitious in its recruitment, associated online propaganda, and incitement efforts,” Webber said. “Pro-IS Somalia outlets are creating media content focused on US policy in the region and support for governments in the area.”

Beware!

It’s A Trap by Clay Jones

For my fellow Star Wars kids Read on Substack

The entire world has come to know that the Oval Office is now a trap.

When Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House, Trump sprang a trap on him that included veep, JD Vance, who definitely doesn’t fuck couches. I’m glad we cleared that up.

Trump used JD as a pitbull to start the attack, and for him to come in from behind. Zelensky can be scary, yo. And it was smart as Zelesnky picked apart JD’s attack of “Why haven’t you tried diplomacy?” Zelesnky calmly gave JD a thorough history lesson.

JD and Trump were raising their voices, shouting at Zelensky as though it was his fault Russia illegally invaded his nation, and Ukraine had failed to use diplomacy to avoid it, just as Poland had failed to use diplomacy against the Nazis. Haven’t we learned anything from history?

At some point, Trump and JD realized they were embarrassing themselves and the nation, and they kicked Zelensky out of the White House. I can’t wait until we kick Trump out of the White House. Again.

In April, Trump was interviewed by Terry Moran of ABC News in the Oval Office, and Trump bullied Moran, trying to get him to accept that a fake photo was real.

“MS13” had been superimposed onto the photo Trump was showing of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man Trump illegally deported to a Salvadoran prison, with the text clearly typed on top of his knuckles. Oddly enough, Trump had shared the same photo a week before without the text superimposed. Our president (sic) is a moron.

Moran tried to direct the conversation away from the silly photo, probably trying to save Trump some further embarrassment, but Grandpa wouldn’t let it go. He kept insisting that Moran believe the obvious lie.

Trump did it again last week, springing an Oval Office trap on the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.

Trump was showing Ramaphosa photos and videos, often of the wrong places and without context, insisting that White genocide was taking place in his nation. It’s not. (snip-MORE)

The Moving Goal Posts

Hello all in Playtimeville! Yesterday I came by this meme and I was a bit shocked.

So I went to look it up. Googling the issue, I found that the bottom 90% of earners had an average wage of $36,571, and the federal poverty line for a household of 4 is $32,150.

Now, my father worked a good factory job, and I now supervise a fabrication plant. I don’t make, inflation calculated, what he made in 1990 – roughly when he retired. None of my people do. Interestingly, the job he had and a great many of the jobs like the one he had are gone now, moved off quite literally to India, China, Mexico and such. Those jobs are gone. Gone. Like the Bruce Springsteen song, they ain’t coming back.

When you look at the debt situation, it is bleak as hell. But, when did those debts really start accumulating? Right after Ronald Reagan’s Trickle Down Economics – when three major events coincided: the idea that the wealthy know how to invest money better than the poor, and will therefore be the better custodians of that money, trickling it down to the labor classes; the globalization of industrial labor when companies could move their jobs off-shore for a fraction of the hourly wages; and the reduction in taxes that the top incomes would contribute on their astronomical earnings while increasing the taxes that the lesser incomes would pay.

When it gets to the end, there are a great many factors influencing the lives of the common American. I believe welfare and immigration are problems. I believe also that writing laws that you won’t pay for is also a problem!! Congress, regardless of party, has put the tab on the credit card for over 40 years and worsened the position for those who are not in the top 10% at every opportunity. Like every other business and family in the country, I believe the government must live within their means by forcing a law that the budget must balance. It is only then that we can solve some of the other problems facing our country – or more so, become unflinchingly aware of who the real problems are.

Let’s talk about Trump’s cut hurting those making less than $50,000 per year….

Some Harvard News from God (just read it!) 😉

Trump Humiliates Himself at West Point Graduation by God

Just in time for Memorial Day. Read on Substack

Snippet:

3. God’s Final Word

Dictator Donald wants everyone afraid and confused at all times. Verily, God says fuck that.

There is a better story I want to share.

Harvard just announced free online courses for every US citizen. Topics include basic government, the Constitution, and how to recognize a dictatorship.

Now that is how you defeat tyranny. Not with fear, or panic, but with knowledge. With clarity. With truth. And with stories of hope.

The fight is far from over. But we are not alone.

We will not go quietly.
We will not forget.
We will fight like hell. And we will win.

(snip)

Is It A Good Day To Post About Drag in The US Army?

Everyday’s a good day to do that! Jeff Tiedrich included this in his substack today about the President’s grad speech at West Point. I also linked that below this snippet, if anyone’s interested in that. It’s TMI for me today, but very good; I read his most days. Meanwhile, back to the Army news: -A

Drag in the military: How drag queens helped U.S. soldiers win World War II

Ronald Reagan was even involved in this largely-forgotten tradition.

By Dan Tracer Friday, June 21, 2024 · Updated on June 22, 2024

Long before RuPaul’s Drag Race, Drag Queen Story Hour, or any one of the countless drag shows gracing the stages of LGBTQ+ bars around the world, there was another popular spot for performative gender-bending: U.S. military bases in the 1940s.

During World War II, the military embraced drag shows as a unique form of entertainment and a morale-boosting activity. These officially sanctioned events featured all-male performances with soldiers often dressing in women’s attire. According to author Allan Bérubé, GIs staged these shows everywhere from makeshift platforms to grand theater stages, incorporating popular female impersonation routines of the day.

Due to the official segregation of the armed forces, service-member theater productions had no option but to cast men in female roles.

One of the most iconic productions of the era, “This is the Army,” was initially a Broadway musical designed to raise funds for troops. It later became a sensation as a 1943 film starring Ronald Reagan, 37 years before he was elected President of the United States. These shows not only provided soldiers with much-needed diversion during the stresses of conflict but also served as a safe haven for gay service members, as explained by Joe E. Jeffreys, a drag historian and professor at New York University’s New School. (snip; a little MORE with video)

==========================

elderly golfer’s brain goes fuckity-bye in batshit West Point speech by Jeff Tiedrich

Donny can’t be bothered to act like a human being Read on Substack

Like Lemmings over a cliff.

New Montana law limits what flags can be flown at schools and government buildings

The entire article is saying that the public schools should be for everyone … except LGBTQ+ kids and parents of those kids. Yes gay and trans children exist and need / deserve to see themselves represented in the community just as much as straight cis kids do. This is a hate bill, banning a group because the majority in charge doesn’t like them. The flags they say are ok to fly like the Gladstone flag or the thin blue line flag are not neutral and they most definitely represent a political ideology. Again this is about erasing the LGBTQ+ kids / people from society to make the Christian fundamentalist and insecure parents who know they can’t have produced a gay / trans kid feel better about themselves. It is a desire to force the fundamentalist view point on every one regardless if they believe it. It is a desperate attempt to return to the 1950s. Hugs

https://www.ktvh.com/news/new-montana-law-limits-what-flags-can-be-flown-at-schools-and-government-buildings

By: John Riley

Posted 2:53 PM, May 21, 2025

and last updated 6:48 PM, May 21, 2025

A new Montana law limits what flags can be flown on government property or at public schools.

House Bill 819, sponsored by Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, restricts any flags that “represent a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender or political ideology.”

The law effectively bans Pride flags and other LGBTQ flags from being flown at schools or government buildings. In 2019, Gov. Steve Bullock, D-Montana, flew a Pride flag over the state Capitol, which drew criticism from Republicans.

Language in the bill does allow flags like the Gadsden flag and other “official historical flags” to be flown. It also allows flags for law enforcement officers and fallen officers, like the “Thin Blue Line” flag, which Gov. Gianforte, R-Montana, flew above the Montana Capitol on Thursday, May 15, 2025.

When HB 819 was debated on the floor of the Montana House of Representatives, Mitchell said the bill was intended to ensure government entities remain a place of neutrality and was not to impact an individual’s free speech.

“Government buildings, schools and public facilities serve all citizens and should not be used to promote political, ideological or activist messaging,” said Mitchell during the March 6 floor debate.

Critics of HB 819 say the bill targets free speech by allowing provisions for specific flags like the Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” flag to be flown, while others were prohibited. Rep. Pete Elverum, D-Helena, said under the language, a Confederate flag could be flown.

“What we’re doing here is we’re expressly prescribing what speech is allowed, ‘these flags’, and what speech is not allowed, ‘these other flags’,” said Rep. Pete Elverum, D-Helena, on March 6. “And as for the definition of ‘promoting a certain ideology,’ those [flags] are expressly prohibited, but at the exact same time we’re sitting here with a bill proclaiming to be about free speech, we’re expressly prohibiting some and promoting others.”

Flags of tribal nations, foreign countries, military service branches, the POW/MIA flag and official school or government entities’ flags are also permitted under the law.

HB 819 went into effect immediately after Governor Greg Gianforte signed it.

This year, both Utah and Idaho have passed similar laws restricting or banning Pride flags on government property or at schools.