MAP: ICE really doesn’t want protestors to find these unmarked detention sites
ALSO INSIDE: Meet the two men stopping Congress from investigating Epstein’s criminal network
Cam here 👋 bringing you your daily dose of what people are doing – good, bad, and otherwise – in the world of politics. We’re diving into the stories you won’t see anywhere else. And remember, you can also keep up with me over on TikTok and Bluesky.
Epstein’s victims claim his lawyer acted as loan shark, kept them away from law enforcement
Public opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to use industrial warehouses as immigrant detention camps has halted at least a dozen proposals — and now, signs suggest that his enforcement agents are feeling the pressure at hidden detention sites across the country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been repeatedly violating detention laws at nearly 200 facilities across the country, according to an investigation by the Colorado Times Recorder. People are forced into strip mall shops, office buildings, and various administrative government complexes that lack adequate showers, toilets, bedding, food, and other basic necessities.
COURIER reviewed ICE operations and identified 64 holding sites the agency has attempted to obscure from public view. Unlike traditional offices, these locations are unmarked buildings not listed in ICE’s online directories, and can only be found using specific search terms. Even then, the listed information is often incorrect — the Portland, Maine, office, for example, is described as the Boston Field Office. Many of these sites are clustered around areas of heavy ICE activity, such as behind Home Depots or outside airports used for deportation flights.
All 64 sites can be found here.
Unlike authorized detention sites, like prisons, ICE offices and other spaces rented by DHS are only permitted for temporary holds — meaning someone should only be there long enough to be processed and booked into the system — until they are transferred somewhere with the infrastructure to provide humane living conditions. In practice, however, agents have increasingly been holding toddlers, seniors, and hundreds of others in these offices well beyond the 72-hour limit.
The violation isn’t new, by any means. Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer attorney with the grassroots group NorCal Resist, says she’s been alerting immigrants of ICE’s tactics for over a decade. While there are no official detention centers in Northern California, there are three known sites where people are held for days on end: the ICE field office in San Francisco, an unmarked office building in Redding, and the federal courthouse in Sacramento.
“Our role there is that we can quickly get an attorney down there to assist the person who’s detained. As long as we have this on-the ground presence and we see what’s going on, which otherwise these detentions would be happening and these people would not have that access to an attorney before they’re moved to another location,” said Gonzalez. “I know they [ICE] don’t like us being there, and they harass our volunteers and try to scare them away. So, hopefully we’re having some kind of impact, making them think twice about whether or not to detain someone.”
Similar to the fierce local backlash against warehouse detention proposals, community protests outside ICE’s unmarked field detention sites have begun to wear on ICE agents’ morale. Once it was discovered that an office space in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was being used to hold immigrants — some as young as two years old — protests formed outside the building every month, according to TV9 reporter Jackson Valenti.
Eventually, the crowds grew large enough that agents felt uncomfortable, so they erected a fence to separate themselves from the protestors.
“We are taking proactive steps to enhance security at the Cedar Rapids ICE facility,” a spokesperson told TV9. “Simply put, if everyone respected the law and our property, measures like this wouldn’t be necessary.”
Undeterred, protestors have continued demonstrating, and the fence has been turned into a memorial for individuals who have been killed in ICE custody.
More than 200 coordinated protests are planned for a national day of action on April 25, where millions are expected to march in opposition to the Trump administration’s mass detention agenda. In addition to public demonstrations, initiatives like DEFIANCE.News’ GTFO ICE are developing rapid response networks to train community members on ways to effectively prevent ICE from setting up shop in their neighborhoods.
“We have really good data now to show that, the earlier communities find out about these efforts to convert warehouses into ICE prisons, the likelier they are to stop them,” said Miles Taylor, founder of Defiance. “Hands down, the most effective tactic has been crowd canceling these facilities, shining a light on it.”
So far, 13 warehouse sales have been canceled due to public pressure, and elected officials in Arizona, Georgia, and other states are utilizing bureaucratic maneuvers to prohibit ICE from operating detention camps in their municipalities.
Since day one of Trump’s political career, people have desperately attempted to normalize his absurd abuses of power and blatant corruption – and 10 years later, much of corporate media remains a victim of their own attempts to return to a sense of normalcy.
It’s time to stop sane-washing the insanity.
The two men stonewalling Congress’ investigations into Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network
Ongoing congressional investigations into Jeffrey Epstein’s multi-billion dollar sex trafficking enterprise have ground to a halt. Republicans who control the inquiries have shifted their focus to unreliable witness testimony instead of the millions of documents being withheld by the Trump administration.
As chair of the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, respectively, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) wield immense power over how their committees operate. They control when hearings are held, what can be brought up for a vote, and how many resources are allocated to investigations. Both men are now using this authority to limit their committees’ investigations into Epstein as much as possible, despite broad public interest and bipartisan support among committee members.
After spending the past year failing to find an effective way to politicize Oversight’s investigation to benefit his party and hurt Democrats, Comer has now attempted to move it out of the public eye. House Democrats revealed this week that Comer had replaced formal committee hearings with roundtable discussions — a bureaucratic maneuver that prevents the committee from issuing subpoenas and doesn’t require witnesses to testify under oath.
“They’re trying to shut down investigations,” ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) told COURIER. “Democrats, over the course of the last few months, have put in place seven motions that we’ve passed through our committee — that have included 18 subpoenas for documents, for testimony, for important witnesses to come and talk about the Epstein investigation, and other important matters in front of our committee and our government. But now, Oversight Republicans are scared. They don’t want to face us in committee, and they don’t want to allow us to have motions. ”
The move comes after a series of humiliations Comer has suffered as committee chair. In February, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tore into Republicans during her deposition for compelling her to testify despite having never interacted with Epstein nor any investigation involving him. The following month, close Epstein associate Darren Indyke repeatedly lied under oath without consequence, and last week, former US Attorney General Pam Bondi outright ignored the committee’s subpoena and failed to appear for her scheduled deposition.
Democrats and Republicans on the committee had threatened to hold Bondi in contempt, but they can no longer do so after Comer removed that as an option. Instead, he soft launched a proposal to release Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell from prison in exchange for her cooperation in their investigation — although Comer immediately distanced himself from the idea after bringing it up.
“A lot of people do [want her pardoned],” Comer told POLITICO. “My committee’s split on that.”
However, the government’s own findings show that Maxwell has proven to be an unreliable witness who has shown a willingness to offer whatever narrative will secure her a more favorable outcome. Of potentially greater value to the committee are the roughly 3 million documents from the Epstein Files being withheld by the DOJ, in direct violation of a subpoena issued by Oversight in August 2025.
In the Senate, Crapo has taken a more stoic approach to stalling the investigation. The Finance Committee’s inquiry began in 2021, under then-chair Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). Wyden made gradual progress over the years, eventually gaining temporary access from a resistant Biden administration to Epstein’s financial records at the US Treasury.
That all changed in 2025, when the White House shifted from resistant to combative. Under President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent responded to Wyden’s request for additional records with threats. And Crapo, since taking over as chair in January 2025, has refused to support the investigation, leaving it without adequate resources or subpoena power. He has entirely abdicated responsibility, leaving it up to the House to do the heavy lifting.
“Jeffrey Epstein was a notorious sex trafficker who committed appalling crimes,” Crapo told the Idaho Statesman last October. “The House Oversight Committee is now leading an ‘investigation of the investigators’ and is the appropriate committee to uncover why Epstein was not properly investigated and prosecuted earlier.”
But Wyden, Crapo’s fellow committee member, has said he uncovered what he believes to be troves of evidence at the US Treasury linking Epstein’s financial crimes to accomplices, including more than $1 billion in transactions involving sanctioned banks and Eastern European countries where he is known to have trafficked girls and women. An ongoing investigation by COURIER has also revealed millions of dollars in suspicious transactions that banks were aware of, but allowed to continue because they profited from Epstein’s business.
In one document withheld by the Treasury but mistakenly published by the DOJ, PayPal identified 50 suspicious transactions from Epstein totaling nearly $150,000. The report noted that the “recipients of these payments were found to be predominantly women models, mainly located in Russia.” PayPal monitored the activity for two years — well aware they were red flags for money laundering and human trafficking — but didn’t report it until after Epstein’s second arrest.
Attempts to Sanewash
House Democrat pushes DOJ on possible pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell
US House Oversight members divided on Ghislaine Maxwell pardon, chairman says
Far-Right Spin
Several in Epstein Committee Speak Out in Favor of Pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell
Comer says he is not in favor of pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, committee split
COURIER’s newly-launched Epstein investigation project
For too long, the Epstein Class has dealt in wealth, power, and politics to avoid accountability and deny victims & survivors their due justice. The public deserves the truth, but the Trump Administration is failing its legal obligation to deliver it.
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