Erik Prince and Trump's Deportation Shortfall

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/erik-prince-trump-immigration-enforcement

I suppose this article got little attention in Christian circles because few would find it newsworthy. They support Trump's anti-immigrant agenda and the fact that so-called Christians like Erik Prince would want to promote and profit from it - is not worth talking about. Undoubtedly most of them would do the same if they had the means to do so.

Prince touches on a point that has become even more poignant in the six weeks since it first appeared - for all his bluster, Trump's deportation plan is falling far short of expectations and goals. Prince thus argues that Trump will need to resort to the private sector in order to produce the kind of numbers he projects. Thus far Trump has barely deported 150,000 people - and maybe half that number in reality. It would seem that many of the people they report as deported are actually still incarcerated in the United States.

Given that they year is nearly half over, the 1 million he promised seems a distant if impossible goal. Even if you accept some of the inflated numbers (over 200,000) that are floating around on the Internet - he's falling way short.

Personally I think Trump has relished in the fact that the media is obsessing about a handful of very public deportations (and now his Alcatraz silliness) and missing this larger aspect of the story. One can hope that it will at least result in the eventual dismissal of Tom Homan and the silencing of his vile Hitler-esque rhetoric.

Whether Trump is able to escalate his campaign will depend on the courts and whether the White House will comply with rulings - hence the aggressive campaign to discount judicial checks and balances and tests of constitutionality and to paint these issues in terms of 'foreign policy' due to the diplomacy with the dictator of El Salvador. This is a tactic that seeks to discredit the courts and accuse of them of straying out of their lane - when in fact the courts are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. It's called checks and balances and as such an authoritarian like Trump cannot stand it.

And yet the effectiveness of the judiciary will depend on Congress which is the one body that can call Trump to account and impeach him and members of his cabinet if they refuse to comply with court orders and/or hold the courts or Congress in contempt. But given that this power is dependent on the Speaker of the House which at present is the Evangelical Mike Johnson - it's not going to happen. Johnson (to his everlasting shame) is playing the critical role in enabling the Trump agenda and to complete the circle his own standing is dependent on his willingness to do so.

And the bottom line is this - if Trump is ever going to get really serious about deportations he's going to have to move beyond the law - which has already happened to no small degree. However, this will have to be on a much larger scale and at that point, men like Prince will be useful and even needed. As private contractors they will certainly test the boundaries of the law. And they will do very well by it. It's dirty business and so it's appropriate that dirty men and thieves and criminals like Prince are circling like vultures.