Trump administration threatens eminent domain to seize warehouses for ICE detention
ALSO INSIDE: Anti-academic honored by Trump’s Education Department
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.
Editor’s Note: I will be taking some time off for the next couple of weeks, but will be back at it on March 23. While I’m out, I’ll be sending you some longform, investigative reporting that has had some recent updates based on current events.
What Happened
The Trump administration appears to be considering the use of eminent domain to seize warehouses from owners who refused to sell over concerns they would be turned into immigration detention camps.
Eminent domain is a power of the federal government that allows it to force the sale of private property so it can be used to provide a public benefit. Historically, eminent domain has been used to purchase land needed to build highways, develop public parks, and construct utility infrastructure.
Sources familiar with the proposed deals in New Jersey and Utah say the federal government has hinted at property seizure after the owners refused to sell. In the case of the warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey, the message to property investment company Dalfen Industrial was clear: sell the warehouse to the US Department of Homeland Security, or they will take it by force.
“Dalfen Industrial and its majority partner sold the property to the federal government in lieu of the potential of eminent domain,” the company said in a statement. “The company has no involvement in the future use of the facility.”
Plans to convert industrial warehouses into prison camps for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been severely hampered by the public in a number of locations selected by the DHS. Local governments — frustrated by lack of communication from the Trump administration — passed legislative barriers. Property owners — blindsided by what the warehouses were to be used for — ended talks to sell. In every instance, they were spurred into action by fierce community response; regular protests were held outside warehouses, and public meetings have been filled with residents demanding their elected leaders do something.
In Roxbury, locals thought they had beaten back the federal government, which admitted on February 18 that it had failed to seal the deal with Dalfen after lying about making the purchase earlier that month.
Two days later, DHS bought the warehouse.
“Let us be clear: Roxbury Township will not passively accept this outcome. The Township Council and our legal team have been preparing to pursue all available legal remedies,” said Roxbury Township officials. “this property is not an appropriate location for a facility of this nature in a suburban community and is an unapproved use.”
The proposed ICE warehouse in Salt Lake City appears to be headed down a similar path. Word of ICE’s plans to convert a warehouse just south of the Great Salt Lake into a 7,500-capacity detention camp sparked protests outside the facility and opposition from local and state leaders. After a month of constant pressure, local developer The Ritchie Group said they had no plans to sell the property to the federal government.
Then, the same week the Roxbury warehouse was sold by way of coercion, rumors began to circulate around the Utah state capitol that similar methods were in the works for the Salt Lake City warehouse. During a press briefing on Feb. 19 with state legislators, lobbyist and former Utah Speaker of the House Greg Curtis asked if the state knew of any plans by the Trump administration to use the power of eminent domain to force a sale of The Ritchie Group’s warehouse.
The Ritchie Group did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
State Senate President Stuart Adams and Minority Leader Sen. Luz Escamilla denied any knowledge of the alleged plans, according to those who attended the briefing. But there is little evidence to suggest they would be alerted at all, as that has not been the case in any of the other ICE warehouse purchase, as the lack of transparency in procural process has left local leaders completely in the dark until the deal is done.
Of the 23 warehouses DHS planned to purchase, local opposition has killed eight of the deals. Ten warehouses have been purchased, and the status of the five remaining is shrouded in secrecy the Trump administration has become known for.
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.
Anti-academic honored by Trump’s Education Department
Proud anti-academic and late “College is a Scam” author Charlie Kirk has been selected by the Trump administration as one of the country’s heroes of education, and a five-story banner with his face on now hangs outside the entrance to the Department of Education.
The decision to hoist Kirk up as a symbol of knowledge illustrates how Education Secretary Linda McMahon views the purpose of schools: not to grow knowledge and intellectual development, but as places of indoctrination that churn out uneducated workers to feed into the US’ hyper-capitalistic system.
Kirk, a community college dropout whose rise to fame was built largely by far-right financier Dennis Prager, spent the vast majority of time on campus hosting mock debates with students. After spending hours eliciting controversial responses from undergrads, Kirk would edit the encounters into a curated montage that portrayed him the victor in every exchange.
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He later helped Prager build Prager University, a conservative advocacy nonprofit that creates unaccredited, unreviewed classroom materials with the goal of advancing right-wing ideas. PragerU goes to great lengths to weave disinformation into every piece of content, creating a confusing web of information that rewrites history and adds an ideological bent to what would normally be apolitical information.
Some of the more blatant examples are that of its video about Christopher Columbus, where it correctly dispels the myth that early explorers believed the Earth was flat, but but goes on to justify the genocide of Indigenous Americans. Or, in its video on Booker T. Washington, the animated version of Washington doesn’t shy away from the horrors of slavery—but it does lie about America’s role in upholding it.
With the help of Kirk’s Turning Point USA, PragerU is now an approved school resource in at least a dozen states, and it’s because it was championed by Kirk. If implemented nationwide, it would create a generation of millions of students who aren’t just getting an inadequate education, they’ll be taught falsehoods about US history and dissuaded from the pursuit of knowledge for any other purpose than what makes them valuable to an employer.
Meanwhile, the Education Department is accelerating the student loan crisis by removing debt forgiveness options and privatizing loans — which, ironically, was one of Kirk’s original issue with higher education.
But now he’s the face of it.
Attempts to Sanewash
What new Department of Education banner labels Charlie Kirk raises eyebrows
Education Department features banners recognizing Charlie Kirk and historic educators
Ed. Dept. Hangs Banner of Charlie Kirk Alongside MLK Jr., Ben Franklin
Far-Right Spin
It’s easy for individual members of Congress to get overlooked by national outlets as they quietly skate to reelection again… and again, and again. The following is an overview of different congressional representatives you may not have heard of, with fun facts about their origin stories they’ve tried to keep out of the public narrative.
Oklahoma US Sen. Markwayne Mullin
Since being elected to Congress in 2103, Sen. Mullin has:
Seen his net worth increase from $4 million to $65 million
Sponsored 162 bills, four of which have been signed into law
Lied to voters about collecting his salary for being a member of Congress
Violated the code of ethics by promoting his plumbing company as a member of Congress
Received $600,000 for promoting his plumbing company while in Congress
Fun Facts
Despite being incredibly wealthy, Mullin seems to never miss an opportunity to pocket a few extra bucks. In addition to paying himself $600,000 for violating ethics rules and using his syndicated home improvement radio show while in Congress to promote his businesses, Mullin has been accused of using his position to profit from insider trading.
He’s also benefited from millions in taxpayer dollars, a fact he has repeatedly denied. Mullin told voters that he doesn’t take his congressional salary—which he does—and, while he’s railed against student loan forgiveness, has taken a much more sympathetic approach towards his own forgiven loans. Mullin’s company received nearly $1.5 million, which would cover almost three years of his salary, in PPP loans he never paid back.
Trump nominated Mullin to be the next Department of Homeland Security Secretary, despite Mullin’s apparent lack of experience in nearly every aspect of government DHS touches. Instead, he was chosen primarily for his loyalty to the president and his background as a mixed-martial arts fighter.
“A MAGA Warrior, and former undefeated professional MMA fighter, Markwayne truly gets along well with people, and knows the Wisdom and Courage required to Advance our America First Agenda,” Trump wrote on his personal social media platform, Truth Social. “Markwayne will make a spectacular Secretary of Homeland Security. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
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