No. 5
July 4, 2026
250th Anniversary of U.S. Declaration of Independence 1776
Actions Across the Country Give True
Meaning to "We the People"
• Celebrating Resistance and Building Unity on July 4, 2026
• Militant Participation in International
Days
of Action for Cuba
• Battle of Greasy Grass Victory Celebrated
• Hunger and Labour Strikes Demand Rights
and Closing
of All Detention
Camps
• Communities Oppose Expansion of Concentration Camps
• "Alligator Alcatraz" Forced to Close After Less than a Year
• Concert Marks One Year Since First No Kings Day
For Your Information
• Vast Network of Immigration Detention
Prisons
and Concentration
Camps
• Shadow Prisons for Immigrants in Place Since 2005
• Role of Major
For-Profit Prison Corporations in
Mass Incarceration of
Immigrants and Refugees
250th Anniversary of U.S. Declaration of Independence 1776
Actions Across the Country Give True
Meaning
to "We the People"
Washington DC action calling for "Truth, Equality & Freedom,"
June 27, 2026
People across the U.S. have been taking their stands, defying police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, threats, detention, jailings, torture, killings and long prison sentences of more than 50 years for protesting. Their many actions take various forms including mass demonstrations, marches, hunger/labor strikes, banner drops, petitions, call-ins to Congress, lawsuits, Zooms, discussions, national mobilizations and more. Through these actions the peoples, speaking in their own name, are expressing what "We the People" means to them. While Trump occupies Washington, DC with 5,000 National Guards and attempts to use spectacles and promotion of the military for the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence and desperately tries to hide that his spectacles have no takers, the peoples are showing through their resistance that they are decisive in determining the history of the past 250 years and what is to come going forward.
The month of June alone has seen significant demonstrations and organizing of various kinds. Juneteenth actions took place across the country, many very large, celebrating the decisive role enslaved peoples played in their emancipation during the Civil War and after. Often termed Freedom Day, Juneteenth marks the date that the last of the people enslaved officially secured their freedom on June 19, 1865. The various parades and demonstrations bring to the fore that Black people have played a decisive role in the many struggles for rights, equality and justice and continue to do so. They are also a main target of current attacks, including those against voting rights and collective bargaining rights and through mass layoffs of federal workers. Juneteenth is also a time when the current racism and slavery of mass incarceration -- with the people incarcerated forced to work for nothing or next to nothing -- is opposed.
Juneteenth
Chicago, IL
Orlando, FL
Denver, CO
During May and June more than 1,000 people took part in hunger and labor strikes at ICE detention camps, rightly now called concentration camps by many. For more than a month, hundreds of people at Delaney Hall camp in Newark, New Jersey went on a hunger/labor strike, refusing to eat the spoiled food provided, and refusing to work which they are forced to do to run the concentration camps, for $1.00 a day or less. The Delaney Hall camp is operated privately by the for-profit contractor GEO Group.
The Delaney strikers were joined by large crowds gathering daily outside the concentration camp. They demanded everyone be released, that the camp be closed and that the demands for clean water, edible food, medical care, family and lawyer visits and judicial review, be met.
Similar support took place for the hunger/labor strikes at other concentration camps, including the one in Tacoma, Washington, which has had nine strikes in 2026, with women playing a leading role. Strikes also took place at concentration camps in Adelanto, California; Alvarado, Texas at the Prairieland facility; Estancia, New Mexico; Baldwin, Michigan and Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania.
The courage and organized resistance of these strikers, alongside broad support, enabled them to persist despite massive retaliation -- including pepper spray, solitary confinement and punitive transfers. Their determination inspired all those standing against ICE demanding Close the Detention Camps! No Deportations!
Newark, NJ, June 11, 2026
Self-reliance characterizes these actions against ICE, as neighbors and whole communities join in to provide aid and protection. While ICE continues with mass arrests and illegal detentions -- 10,000 people were arrested in five days at the end of June -- teachers, nurses, public sector workers have been at the forefront in defending communities and uniting all to demand Abolish ICE Now!
On June 25, 10,000 Indigenous people and allies gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the victory at the Battle of Greasy Grass, more commonly known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn. On June 25-26, 1876, Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors achieved one of the most significant military victories won by Indigenous Peoples against the U.S. Army. Led by leaders such as Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and chief Sitting Bull, Oglala Lakota war leader and strategist Crazy Horse, Hunkpapa Lakota war chief and strategist Gall and Northern Cheyenne chief Óoetaneo' (Two Moon), Indigenous warriors defeated George Armstrong Custer and the Seventh Cavalry along the banks of the Greasy Grass River in present-day Montana. The celebration was not only to honor this victory but to bring to the fore for today the unity, strength, and determination of Indigenous Peoples in defense of their sovereignty, culture, traditions, lands and right to be.
Actions calling for "Truth, Equality and Freedom" were held across the U.S. on June 27. Nearly 70 demonstrations were organized in more than 30 states, with the main one in Washington, DC. Reflecting the spirit of many of the demonstrations taking place, the organizers said, "With resilience and conviction, we uphold the freedoms that define us, refusing to be silenced in the face of adversity. We remember that we, the people, have the power to shape our collective destiny."
Their "Declaration of Interdependence" gave emphasis to the decisive role of the people: "Progress is incomplete and the path forward has never been a straight line. But what remains true is that throughout our history, more and more people have come together to expand who matters. All transformations begin in the defiant hearts and fearless imaginations of people -- traveling from the margins to the center of our nation's stories.
Action in Washington, DC as part of June 27 actions "For
Truth, Equality and Freedom"
"To begin the next 250 years of the American story, we open our hearts and set free our radical imaginations to unlock a nation defined by interdependence, where everyone can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. A nation governed by and for the people -- all people. We, the people of the United States, commit to work together to make this vision a reality."
On June 18, autoworkers succeeded in getting their union to divest $400,000 in Israeli bonds, taking their stand against genocide. This action occurred at the United Auto Workers (UAW) 39th Constitutional Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD) delegates, representing UAW members across the country, forced the amendment onto the Constitutional Convention agenda. Convention delegates then voted to divest, marking a victory for rank-and-file organizing for Palestine. The workers bucked a decades-long trend of sidelining questions of international solidarity and silencing Palestine liberation.
Another form of resistance is taking place during primary elections in many states. The primaries determine who will be the candidate for the Democrats in the November 2026 mid-term elections. The choices the people are making represent the firm stand of the people against war and genocide, in support of Palestine, to abolish ICE and for rights to housing and a livelihood. Despite massive amounts of money from the Zionist American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and other reactionaries to defeat candidates the people have chosen, those standing up for Palestine and rights won federal and state races.
Pro-Palestine champions dominated primaries in New York City, considered a bastion of the Zionists, where Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier both won their congressional primaries in upset victories. AIPAC pumped more than $650,000 into defeating Avila and lost. In the New York state legislature, Aber Kawas will be the first Palestinian American in the NY State Senate and three pro-Palestine candidates will be going to the NY State Assembly. In New York, winning the Democratic primary means almost certain election in November.
Additional congressional candidates running in support of Palestine and with anti-war, pro-social positions won in Dallas and Philadelphia. In New Jersey, Dr. Adam Hamawy, who traveled to Gaza to provide medical assistance, won.
In Denver, Colorado, Melat Kiros won, ousting a 30-year establishment Democrat who refused to call for an arms embargo to stop Palestinian genocide. In the final weeks, money flooded into the race, much of it from AIPAC, Amazon, and Lockheed Martin, but the people prevailed and elected Melat Kiros.
In all cases, the elections represented the firm anti-war, pro-Palestine stand of the people and massive door-to-door organizing. In NYC tens of thousands of doors were knocked on and discussion held, while Denver saw more than 100,000 doors knocked on. Various organizations came together to mount these campaigns and engage the people in political discussion. In this manner, elections are being used as one form of organizing resistance, giving expression to the demands of the people for an end to genocide, abolishing ICE, and for their rights, giving expression to what they mean by "We the People."
Actions Calling for "Truth, Equality &
Freedom" June
27, 2026
New York City
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Chicago, IL; Oakland, CA
Celebrating Resistance and Building
Unity on July 4, 2026
Action in
Washington, DC as part of June 27 actions "For Truth,
Equality and Freedom"
Rejecting the genocide and repression of the U.S. state, peoples in the United States are organizing to celebrate resistance and build their fighting unity on July 4. Actions of various kinds are being used to bring together the many organizations fighting for rights and against war to share experience and discuss the work moving forward to build alternatives to the current dysfunctional system. Everywhere there is repudiation of the Trump administration and its tyranny, extreme violence and wars of obliteration. Together, the stand is taken, Not in Our Name! Not in Our Community! No Wars, No ICE!
Indigenous Peoples are organizing Pow Wows July 3-5 in celebration of their long and determined resistance in defence of their sovereignty and rights and their steadfast stewardship of their lands for millennia. Pow Wows bring tribes and communities together and foster the collective memory and traditions, ensuring languages and the culture of resistance are passed on.
In Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere rallies and demonstrations take place on July 4. Chicago's include uniting the fighting forces against war and for Palestine, such as the action on Michigan Avenue called, "Independence for All: Stop the U.S. Genocide in Gaza."
In
Atlanta, Georgia at Malcolm X Park on July 4, a National
Mobilization Against Genocides is being held. Many different
organizations are gathering to work together, exchange experiences and
discuss further unifying the peoples' movements for rights. Organizing
to develop the Peoples' Senate as
an alternative to provide the peoples a space to discuss and decide on
solutions to current problems and organize together to achieve them is
being strengthened. In its call for the action, the Spirit of Mandela
Coalition (spiritofmandela.org) states:
"The Spirit of Mandela Coalition, continuing the work of the 2021 International Tribunal that found the U.S. government GUILTY OF GENOCIDE against Black, Brown, and Indigenous Peoples, will commemorate 250+ years of consistent resistance. We will celebrate the building of new people's movements, united fronts, international alliances, and local initiatives fiercely combatting modern genocide, imperialism, white supremacist oppression, and injustice.
"The 19th Century Abolitionist, Frederick Douglass asked, 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?' In the legacy of Crazy Horse, Rev. Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Harriet Tubman, Lolita Lebron, and all the freedom fighters throughout history, we respond by taking this moment to redouble our efforts to build and connect mass and popular movements that are truly of the people, by the people, and for the people."
In another July 4 action, called "No Kings, Stop War with Iran," in Beverly, Massachusetts, organizers write:
"Trump's illegal and violent war on Iran is escalating, and Congress has a choice to make. Both Republicans and Democrats must decide whether they'll stand with their constituents, with the majority of Americans who oppose this war, or support Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's violence regardless of the human and economic cost. [...] We must make clear to Trump and his party that the American people will not stand for another costly, senseless war in the Middle East that harms all of us, here and abroad. Bring your signs or flags and your friends."
People in Washington, DC are also standing against the repressive militarization imposed on their city by the rulers. There is an increased police presence for July 4, including 5,000 troops and increasing the forces from the many federal policing agencies, including ICE and FBI. Repression for what is usually a family event to watch fireworks is now at inauguration level. A "prohibited items list" means anyone with backpacks, coolers, camping chairs, sunscreen, bug spray, umbrellas and even water bottles will be blocked from attendance. Trump says he will be giving a long speech, presenting himself as the revolutionary carrying forward the revolution of 1776. He is indeed carrying forward the counter-revolution that stood against the fight of the peoples, then and now, for progress and a democracy in their interests.
When Trump spoke June 24, opening his "Great American State Fair," crowds flocked to the exit while he was speaking. Attendance at the Fair has been sparse. Given people are already denouncing the repressive measures and that the July 4 fireworks will be delayed by Trump, these crowds too may well be sparse.
For the peoples of the country, the spirit is one of defying all the many repressive oppressive measures of the U.S. state, developing their internationalism, and organizing for alternatives in the interests of the peoples, for their own empowerment as decision makers.
Militant Participation in International Days
of Action for Cuba
National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of
registered nurses, and Congresswomen Delia Ramirez hold a press
conference in Washington, DC, June 30, 2026 to demand an end to the
Trump administration’s blockade of oil supplies entering
Cuba. Also present is Global Health Partners, which is working to
supply Cuba with critical medical equipment and medicine.
Across the U.S., people from all walks of life continue to oppose the unjust, illegal and genocidal U.S. sanctions and threats of war against Cuba. These actions are yet another example of the militancy of working people and their internationalist spirit, standing as one for the rights of all at home and abroad.
|
New York City,
June 28, 2026 An International Week of Action has been underway since June 28 and culminates with actions July 4. The U.S. National Network on Cuba (NNOC) writes these actions are being organized so that "On July 4 while the United States celebrates its own independence, we will expose the hypocrisy of a nation that denies Cuba's. As the United States escalates the blockade, weaponizes fuel access, maintains Cuba on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, and threatens violent overthrow of the Cuban government, we respond with the same steadfastness, the same dignity, and the same refusal to accept injustice that Fidel embodied for over half a century."
In defiance of the blockade and with determination, groups across the U.S. continue to collect and send important humanitarian aid to Cuba, finding ways by air and sea to get the supplies to Cuba.
|
Chicago, IL, June
3, 2026 In addition, June 3 saw broad participation in the International Day of Action for Cuba. In their call for the Day of Action, NNOC pointed out, "This date marks five months since the United States' invasion of Venezuela, which killed one hundred people including 32 brave Cubans and led to the kidnapping of democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. June 3 also falls on the 95th birthday of Cuban revolutionary hero, Raúl Castro Ruz."
Signs, banners and speeches for all the actions sent a clear message, that the people vehemently oppose U.S. threats of war on Cuba and the brutal sanctions regime. At the action in Chicago on June 3, a member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, addressed the demonstration. He said that today he is not proud of his time in the U.S. Navy and is especially ashamed of having worked at the U.S. torture prisons at the naval base in Guantánamo. He affirmed that About Face recognizes and denounces the decades-long war on Cuba and stands in solidarity with Cuba and her people.
June 28-July 4 Week of Action
Press conference, Washington, DC, June 30, 2026
Detroit, MI, June 30, 2026
Grand Rapids, MI, June 30, 2026
June 3 Day of Action
Brooklyn, NY
Nashville, TN
Chattanooga, TN
San Antonio, TX
Richmond, CA
Battle of Greasy Grass Victory Celebrated
Thousands of Indigenous people and their allies gathered in Montana to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the victory of the Battle of Greasy Grass, known in U.S. history books as the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The celebration involved a reenactment, with hundreds of warriors on horseback riding onto the field and circling together as one. This gave expression to the unity of the different nations present, while representing the unity at the Battle of Greasy Grass June 25-26, 1876.
At that time Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors achieved a significant military victory against the Seventh Calvary of the U.S. Army, including the defeat and death of Lieutenant Colonel George Custer. Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gall, Two Moon, and others led this victory and played key roles in the resistance organized by Indigenous Peoples against the genocide perpetrated by the U.S. military.
For the Indigenous Peoples, the Battle of Greasy Grass was about honour and their right to be, a stand that has been passed down through the generations, especially within the tribes who fought in the battle.
The Lakota and Cheyenne were not seeking war. They were defending lands they had protected and nurtured for generations, guaranteed to them under the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. That treaty recognized the Black Hills and vast surrounding territories as belonging to the Lakota people. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills, the U.S. broke the treaty, as it did with the many treaties it signed with Indigenous Peoples.
The celebration served to honour resistance and foster the collective memory of the courage of the ancestors who stood together against overwhelming odds to defend their sovereignty and way of life.
The victory itself was short-lived. Within months, the U.S.
unleashed a massive military campaign against the Lakota and Cheyenne.
Indigenous Peoples faced relentless attacks, starvation, imprisonment,
forced relocation and genocide. The Black Hills were seized despite
treaty protections. But the
memory and recognition of the victory at Greasy Grass, and the unity,
strength, wisdom and determination shown remains firm today, as
Indigenous Peoples continue to affirm their rights and reject U.S.
genocide.
(With files from Native News Online)
Hunger and Labour Strikes Demand Rights and Closing of All Detention Camps
Delaney Hall detention camp, June 2026
In May and June, there were several hunger/labour strikes by the people unjustly imprisoned in detention camps across the country, denouncing their horrific conditions and demanding that all these concentration camps be closed. Many held in the camps have lived in the U.S. for years. Most do not face any criminal charges. They are arbitrarily arrested and detained as ICE attempts to terrorize whole communities.
Women are playing a leading role in the strikes. There is great anger not only about the fraudulent detentions and conditions but that young girls detained, many unaccompanied minors, are being raped and are now pregnant. They are being shipped off to a detention camp in Texas to isolate them. But they, like the women and all those detained, refuse to be silent and are fighting back.
Solidarity
rally outside Delaney Hall detention camp in Newark, New Jersey
standing with the hunger and labour strikers, June 21, 2026
Strikes took place at the Delaney Hall detention camp in Newark, New Jersey. Another concentration camp in Tacoma, Washington has had nine strikes in 2026. In Alvarado, Texas, the people forced into this camp also went on strike, as did those in Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania and Baldwin, Michigan. The strike in Adelanto, California began in May. The actions are giving expression to the stand that No Human Being Is Illegal! and the broad defiance characteristic of the battles for rights today.
The people involved not only refused to eat but also refused to work. Their labour is used to run these facilities, meaning even greater profits for the private prison monopolies that run the facilities. They are notorious and face numerous lawsuits against them for their rotten and inhumane conditions, yet the government continues to award them billion-dollar contracts.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), reporting on the situation at Delaney Hall where the hunger/labour strike lasted a month, referred to an open letter signed by 300 people. It brings to light the lawlessness of the administration as well as the lack of medical care, the spoiled food, lack of clean water and other inhumane conditions at the facility. These same demands were made at all the different hunger/labour strikes. Those on strike were supported from the outside with protests by their loved ones, community members and various legal and rights organizations.
The prison officials responded brutally, violently retaliating, including by imposing the torture of solitary confinement and punitive transfers. Both those detained inside and those protesting outside have been pepper sprayed and faced the use of force, including against members of Congress attempting to do oversight.
The ACLU wrote, "ICE has attempted to conceal what's going on inside -- initially denying health inspectors access, while families were blocked from seeing their loved ones through visitation." The organization added that those detained inside Delaney Hall were "demanding the release of medically vulnerable, elderly, pregnant and young people from detention, for immigration judges to meaningfully review their cases, for federal courts to review their habeas corpus petitions, and for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end the practice of pressuring detained people to sign voluntary departure agreements or deportation documents." Everywhere the demand is to free all those being detained and hold government to account for the crimes committed.
The ACLU reports that "Five of the six facilities are operated by private prison corporations -- four by GEO Group alone, a company that collected over $1 billion in federal payments last year and whose former executive now serves as acting director of ICE. These strikes, and the record pace of deaths in custody -- 50 people dead since January 2025 -- are not anomalies. They are the entirely predictable consequence of an administration that has explicitly set out to detain up to 100,000 people, that has poured billions into expanding a system already rife with abuse, and that has treated accountability and oversight as obstacles to be overcome rather than guardrails to keep people safe. A system that grows this fast, with so much money and little to no accountability, doesn't just risk failure -- it guarantees it."
The widespread stand and demands, consistently part of the many demonstrations of all kinds taking place, are to Close the Detention Camps Now! Abolish ICE!
Delaney Hall
(With files from ACLU, Jersey Vindicator)
Communities Oppose Expansion of
Concentration Camps
Action against ICE, Milwaukee WI, July 2, 2026
Across the U.S., communities and towns are opposing and defeating attempts by the Trump administration to expand the network of immigration detention camps run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Efforts are being made to purchase large warehouses and use military facilities to be able to detain 100,000 people at any given time.
The expansion is indicative of greater attacks against immigrants and refugees as well as against protesters and all those standing up for rights. The Prairieland 9, for example, who protested outside that detention facility in Texas on July 4, 2025, have been give extremely long sentences, totalling 450 years, including one for 100 years -- for standing with people detained!
In communities in Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and elsewhere, people have united to welcome and protect immigrants and refugees and for ICE to stay out and be abolished. Municipal officials are among those taking a stand, with these warehouses expected to house thousands of people, putting extreme and unsustainable pressure on water and sewer systems. Some of the warehouses have three-four toilets for what will be thousands of people.
Detention Watch Network reported on May 21, "The city of Social Circle, Georgia has filed a lawsuit against ICE over the agency's plans to convert a local warehouse into a massive, 10,000-bed detention site. For months, ICE has been moving to open the detention facility without complying with environmental regulations or coordinating with the town and local community.
"ICE is scouting, purchasing and retrofitting warehouses nationwide for immigration detention, which are expected to detain between 1,500-10,000 people each. These detention warehouses are a part of the Trump regime's mass detention expansion plan that will put an immense strain on local infrastructure, including roads, water and sewer systems, emergency services, and other essential public resources. In Social Circle, a town of just 5,000 people, the proposed warehouse detention site would triple the town's population, consume more than a million gallons of additional fresh water per day, and require wastewater management far beyond the town's existing capacity.
"Confining people in large-scale, makeshift detention warehouses will exponentially increase the likelihood for abuse, infectious disease and death in ICE custody, as ICE cuts people off from their loved ones and support networks, subjecting them to conditions meant for storing products, never people."
Advocates issued the following statements:
Nery Lopez, Senior Organizer at Detention Watch Network, said: "All immigration detention is inherently inhumane and rife with abuse, and yet the warehouse model currently being pursued by ICE is particularly horrifying. People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of in detention warehouses or any detention facility -- full stop. Local communities are making it clear from coast to coast -- they don't want detention centres or warehouse detention, and they will fight tooth and nail to block ICE. We demand an end to Trump's cruel mass detention expansion and that detention facilities be shut down for good."
Priyanka Bhatt, Senior Staff Attorney at Project South, speaking about Social Circles refusal to have a concentration camp said: "This administration's disregard for human life has reached a new level. It is an abomination that warehouses built for manufacturing items and commercial use are being repurposed to cage thousands of human beings across the country. But we will not stay silent. We stand in solidarity with Social Circle and with all the courageous acts of resistance and resilience across the country fighting back against this administration's attack on our communities."
Samantha Hamilton, Senior Staff Attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice -- Atlanta, said: "Whenever a detention centre has opened up in Georgia, it has not made communities safer. Instead, it has expanded ICE's sphere of violence from inside the facility -- where people are routinely assaulted and dehumanized -- to the surrounding communities outside. But the people of Social Circle have said no. ICE's attempt to pull the wool over people's eyes and push this warehouse plan through has been met with resistance from the start. We applaud the people of Social Circle in taking the decisive step of suing the Trump administration to stand up against ICE terror."
(Detention Watch Network)
"Alligator Alcatraz" Forced to Close After
Less than a Year
Weekly vigils have taken place since 2025 to demand the closure of
"Alligator Alcatraz" and the release of detainees. Shown here, the May
31, 2026 vigil. With the closure of the concentration camp, the last
vigil was held on June 21, 2026.
On June 17, the concentration camp that opened July 3, 2025, in the Florida Everglades -- callously dubbed by the Trump administration as "Alligator Alcatraz" -- has been forced to close by persistent resistance. Despite just demands for their freedom, the many people detained have instead been moved to other facilities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Families and lawyers are often left without knowing where people have been sent and some are disappeared for weeks. In addition to detention, the air strip at the tent camp has been used to illegally deport 22,000 people.
"Alligator Alcatraz" was vigorously opposed from the start and weekly vigils have been held, bringing people from across Florida and surrounding states to protest at the site and demand it be closed. The Miccosukee Tribe often led the resistance, alongside environmentalists and worker and immigrant rights organizations. Together they also still have a lawsuit pending to ensure the permanent closure of the camp. The Miccosukee bring out that they were not consulted and the camp desecrated sacred lands and ignored tribal sovereignty from the beginning.
The Miccosukee have protected these lands for generations. The Miccosukee refused to accept the concentration camp. As Native News Online writes, "For the Miccosukee people and their allies, the fight over 'Alligator Alcatraz' was never only about a detention centre. It was about defending the Everglades, protecting sacred homelands, and forcing governments to recognize that Indigenous voices cannot continue to be ignored." Everyone together stood up for the rights of the people detained and succeeded in getting the camp closed.
People in Florida are also angry that the state has spent more than $1 million per day operating this inhumane tent city, with overall costs estimated at $1 billion, yet the right to housing for all, a serious problem, is not being met.
As part of their vengeance, ICE has made sure that many family members and lawyers are not being informed about the transfers being made. Katie Blankenship, an immigration attorney at Sanctuary of the South, said all 50 clients that she and other attorneys have been providing with free advice during the past 20 days have been moved from "Alligator Alcatraz" to other facilities in South Florida, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Texas. "They are all gone," Blankenship said. "They have been moved and disappeared into the system and are unavailable to family or counsel, typically for a period of about a week." She was not notified but only found out because her clients did not appear at hearings or did not show up at calls. She had to locate them herself. For families without lawyers finding their loved ones is even more difficult.
Renata Bozzetto, deputy director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, points out that even if the facility is closed, the harm will not end. "Many of the people detained there will be transferred to other detention facilities, while their families continue to face uncertainty and hardship,'' Bozzetto said. "When this detention camp closes, many corporations and contractors will have walked away with millions in profits, while immigrant families are left to pick up the pieces."
On June 17, the Center for Biological Diversity issued a press release that stated, "Environmental groups will advance their legal case against 'Alligator Alcatraz' amid news that the federal government has moved all detainees out of the mass detention centre in the heart of the Everglades. [...] Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, which originally sued the Trump and DeSantis administrations in June 2025, affirmed their commitment to return to the trial court this month to stop the harm and force full remediation of the damage."
"We will not rest until the government is held accountable for violating the law and the public trust," said Tania Galloni, managing attorney for Earthjustice's Florida regional office. "It is great that detainees have been removed from this devastating facility. But the risks to people and the environment remain. Now we must make sure nothing like this happens again."
Vigil, May 31, 2026
(With files from Associated Press, Center for Biological Diversity, Native News Online)
Concert Marks One Year Since First No Kings Day
Event held in Bozeman, MT, June 14, 2026 in conjunction with
the Rise Up, Sing Out concert in New York City. Events and watch
parties were held in various locations.
June 14 marked the one-year anniversary of the first No Kings Day mobilization, one of the largest days of protest held in the U.S., with some 6 million people taking part in actions in every state. The No Kings Day demonstrations since have brought together 8 million in every state, with banners and signs making clear the stand for rights and against tyranny and war. No Kings, No Colonies, No Genocide!
To mark the anniversary of the
first mobilization, an event was held in New York City
called "Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment." It
refers to the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, one of the 10 amendments that make
up the Bill of
Rights. The Bill of Rights was only included in the Constitution after
fierce fighting by the
people for their demands. The First Amendment reads: "Congress shall
make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
There have long been brutal attacks on these rights, recognized and affirmed by the people though the Constitution itself gives powers to Congress to decide, not the people. These attacks have been stepped up, including targeting the many student actions on campuses protesting for Palestine, those opposing ICE, workers honouring pickets to block war supplies to Israel, academics, teachers, and many others who are standing up for their rights to speak, organize and assemble.
The 90-minute concert was a stand for the right to speak and featured performances and remarks by many well-known cultural personalities, including Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, Julia Roberts, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro. The event was livestreamed and reached hundreds of thousands of people besides those at the concert venue.
Along with various protest songs, speeches at the concert denounced the Trump administration's attacks on rights, artists and cultural workers, and LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people. Gladstone, who is from the Blackfeet Nation, spoke about the families being displaced and torn apart, noting that Indigenous Peoples have suffered this crime by the U.S. government for centuries. Roberts recited a poem in honour of Renée Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis on January 7.
The concert was organized by the Committee for the First Amendment, which describes itself as "a large collective of artists, storytellers, and cultural leaders standing together to defend free expression against government repression, industry complicity, and intimidation." The first iteration of the committee was formed in 1947 during the McCarthyite anti-people, anti-communist repression, initially to support the Hollywood Ten, screenwriters blacklisted after Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee accused them of communist sympathies. It then broadened its scope to oppose government persecution of elected officials, government employees, academics and others for their political beliefs. News reports indicate that the committee was revived on the initiative of Fonda following the election of Donald Trump to his second term as U.S. president.
Watching the concert in Salem, AL, June 14, 2026
(With files from First Amendment Committee, Guardian)
For Your Information
Vast Network of Immigration Detention Prisons
and Concentration
Camps
Action outside venue for World Cup, Arlington, TX, June 14,
2026
Detention Watch Network (DWN) informs that the United States government maintains the world's largest detention system, currently largely used for immigrants and refugees but given continued expansion is also meant for all those who resist. In Fiscal Year 2025, DWN states that the U.S. government "detained more than 310,000 people in a sprawling system of over 200 detention centres, jails and prisons across the country." As of June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is estimated to hold at least 60,000 people on a day-to-day basis. This is down from a record high of 73,000 people in mid-January. Now that ICE is again striving to make 10,000 arrests weekly, this number is likely to rise again.
These unjust and illegal mass detention camps are rightly being called concentration camps with all the historical weight that the term carries, whether those created by the Nazis or those created by the U.S. and Canada to intern Japanese, Ukrainians, communists and many others baselessly accused of being "enemy aliens," during WWII. The Japanese American National Museum points out that "a 'concentration camp' is defined broadly as a place where people are imprisoned not because they are guilty of any crimes, but simply because of who they are." For its part, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum states, "What distinguishes a concentration camp from a prison (in the modern sense) is that it functions outside of a judicial system. The prisoners are not indicted or convicted of any crime by judicial process."
Given the rulers are increasingly resorting to violence and repression in conditions where they have no solutions, peoples everywhere from coast to coast are rising against ICE and demanding that all the camps be closed and no expansion take place.
Detention Watch Network states: "Immigrants in detention can be undocumented or documented immigrants, including people whose immigration status is not current, is expired or is under review. The U.S. locks up survivors of torture, people seeking asylum, visa holders, people who have been granted the permanent right to live in the U.S., people who have lived here for decades and may have American citizen spouses and children, individuals with mental health and medical conditions and other vulnerable groups. The government also jails parents with their children, including babies, in cruel family detention."
The website Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) informs that "42,722 out of 60,311 people or 70.8 per cent held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction according to data current as of April 4, 2026. Many of those convicted committed only minor offences, including traffic violations." It further points out that ICE classifies an individual as a convicted criminal if they have been convicted of what ICE terms criminal violations, even though they are often civil violations. Violations can range from serious felonies all the way down to a purely civil immigration violation (such as illegal entry which is a petty offence under the U.S. Code), or a violation which results only in a fine such as not keeping a dog on a leash, fishing without a permit, driving a vehicle with a taillight out, etc.
Protest in Los Angeles calling for closure of ICE detention camps, June
13, 2026
(With files from Detention Watch Network, TRAC, Japanese American National Museum, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Shadow Prisons for Immigrants
in Place Since 2005
In Portland teams are going door-to-door circulating a
petition to get ICE out of Portland, June 8, 2026
The current program of mass detention of immigrants is not a phenomenon unique to the Trump administration. The Detention Watch Network (DWN) points out that this has been U.S. policy for more than two decades, with people arbitrarily imprisoned within a "shadow prison system exclusively created for immigrants, operating in secrecy and with no programs to support those inside.
"Until the 1990s, border crossing was almost always a civil offence. In 2005, the government put in place Operation Streamline, a program that created an expedited process for the criminal prosecution of individuals apprehended at the border (often dozens of people at a time), with virtually no due process protections. The program expanded the number of federal prosecutions dramatically. These immigrant-only prisons are often referred to as 'shadow' prisons. [...]
"These 'shadow' prisons are managed by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and have been entirely operated by private prison companies with an appalling record of abuse and mismanagement, including the excessive use of solitary confinement. [...] 'Shadow' prisons often lack basic programming, with officials arguing that most immigrants with federal convictions will be deported and therefore don't deserve even the most basic services.
"People detained in 'shadow' prisons have led organizing and rebellion on the inside to protest deplorable conditions and extreme sentences. In February 2014, 2,000 of the 3,000 immigrants held at Willacy County Correctional Center [in Texas] -- a former detention centre converted into a 'shadow' prison -- led an uprising that not only dismantled the structure of the facility itself but led to its closure."
A 2021 executive order from then President Joe Biden that purported to close such facilities contained loopholes that permitted their ongoing usage by federal agencies. DWN points out that "in 2024 President Biden announced plans to ramp up border prosecutions as part of an overall plan to restrict access to people seeking asylum at the border, increase expedited deportations, and grow immigration detention capacity."
The Trump administration aims to continue increasing the total capacity of the ICE concentration camps. The American Immigration Council says that the system of immigration detention, "which did not fully take off until the mid-1990s, is now on track to rival the entire federal criminal prison system by the end of President Trump's second term in office. With the Trump administration hoping to get over 100,000 detention beds or more online in 2026, ICE detention and the ongoing abuses inside these facilities will only grow more numerous."
The expansion of the network of concentration camps is being funded by the Trump administration's 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which put $45 billion for stepping up the broad anti-social offensive, including a massive increase in funding for ICE enforcement and detention. Another $70 billion was provided in June. The people are demanding no funding for ICE and that it be abolished immediately along with the closure of all the concentration camps, NOW!
Houston, TX, May 31, 2026
(With files from Detention Watch Network, American Immigration Council.)
Role of Major For-Profit Prison Corporations in Mass Incarceration of Immigrants and Refugees
Private for-profit prison corporations are heavily involved in the massive increase the unjust and illegal detention of immigrants and refugees being carried out by the Trump administration. Tens of billions of dollars have been granted by Congress, $45 billion U.S. in 2025 and another $70 billion U.S. in June 2026.
These private for-profit corporations play a key role in realizing the U.S. government's aims to rapidly achieve a total capacity of 100,000 for those detained by ICE. Rather than building prisons, the expansion is being done by the conversion of warehouses into concentration camps.
According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, for-profit detention camps hold the overwhelming majority of people, mainly workers, detained by ICE. These facilities are also where the majority of the fatalities in federal immigrant detention have occurred since January 2025, with a total of 52 deaths in that time.
GEO Group
GEO Group is the largest private for-profit operators of prisons and concentration camps in the U.S. It owns or operates 95 facilities across the country. Nineteen of these facilities are operated for Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE). It was founded in 1984 as a division of the security firm Wackenhut Corporation by George Zoley, who is the current CEO.
GEO Group reported $2.6 billion in total revenue in 2025, up six per cent from $2.43 billion in 2024. Based in Boca Raton, Florida, its U.S. operations are primarily privatized prisons and detention camps for federal and state authorities. It also has similar operations in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Regarding the conversion of warehouses into ICE concentration camps, Zoley told investors in a February earnings call, "We've only had one experience in renovating a warehouse, and that occurred maybe 30 years ago. So it's more complicated than you may think." He added, "As a 40-year partner to ICE, we expect to be a part of this solution." Notably, the largest institutional investor in GEO Group is BlackRock, which is heavily involved in national banks and government infrastructure projects, including in Canada.
That same month, GEO Group announced it had signed a U.S.$1 billion, 15-year contract with the federal government to reopen Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ, as a concentration camp able to hold 1,000 people. After reopening, Delaney Hall has refused access to various government officials, including Governor Mikie Sherrill, to investigate abuse taking place there. The people detained and surrounding community have waged persistent struggles to close the camp.
In 2021, ICE paid GEO Group more than U.S.$15 million to carry out deportations to Haiti.
GEO Group also runs the Reeves County
Detention Complex in Texas, which saw people inside rebel in 2008 and 2009 over poor
conditions. The Texas complex, still in operation today, houses more
than 3,700 prisoners. GEO Group boasts it is "the largest
detention/correctional facility under private management in the world."
Even in 2008/2009, the vast majority of those detained were immigrants
serving short sentences prior to deportation for non-criminal offences,
such as entering the U.S. outside a port of entry. Clearly, the current
abuse of people at Delaney Hall is not something new for GEO Group.
From 2006 to 2012, it was contracted by ICE to run the Migrant Operations Center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Over the past 25 years, GEO Group has regularly faced lawsuits and investigations for deaths and mistreatment at its facilities.
CoreCivic
CoreCivic is the second largest for-profit operator of private prisons in the U.S., with operations on a similar scale to GEO Group. Based in Brentwood, TN, it runs 70 state and federal facilities. Of these, at least ten are ICE detention facilities. In 2025, it reported U.S.$2.2 billion in total revenue, up 13 per cent from $1.96 billion in 2024. Like GEO Group, it also expects to reap a windfall from the billions of federal dollars allocated to increase the detention of immigrants. It was founded in 1983 as Corrections Corporation of America. In 1984, CoreCivic became the first U.S. company to build and operate a private prison – a Houston motel that was hastily remodelled to incarcerate immigrants.
BlackRock is also the top institutional investor for Core Civic. However, many pension funds for public employees unions were also investors, leading to campaigns for these funds to divest from CoreCivic and GEO Group.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC, i.e., the Quakers) in its 2023 investigation into CoreCivic, noted that 52 per cent of the company's annual revenue was generated from federal prison and immigration authorities, including primarily ICE, the U.S. Marshals Services (USMS), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Of this amount, 30 per cent came from ICE. The rest of the company's revenue derived mostly from contracts with state and local government agencies.
In 2025, the Trump administration awarded CoreCivic a $100 million contract to reopen Oklahoma's 2,160-bed Diamondback Correctional Facility that had been closed since 2010. Also that year, CoreCivic announced it would reopen South Texas Family Residential Center, under ICE contract, with the capacity to detain up to 2,400 people.
In 2016, the Obama administration provided CoreCivic a U.S.$1 billion no-bid contract to detain asylum seekers from Central America.
In 2012, the company contacted prison officials in 48 states offering, in exchange for a 20-year management contract, a guaranteed occupancy rate of 90 per cent. This obviously predisposes the system to all manner of abuse and increased incarceration for offences that do not warrant it. Furthermore, under such contracts, state and federal agencies (such as ICE) are legally obligated to pay for a minimum of 90 per cent of the facility's total bed capacity, even if actual occupancy falls below that threshold.
Over the years, CoreCivic has been investigated for abuse of those in its facilities, corruption and fraud, as well as violations of attorney-client confidentiality, among other wrong-doing. The Quakers point out:
"CoreCivic's prisons have long faced allegations of inhumane living conditions, excessive use of force, prolonged use of solitary confinement, forced prison labour, medical negligence, physical and sexual abuse, spying and voyeurism, overcrowding, understaffing, and civil rights violations."
Quebec-Based GardaWorld
Quebec-Based GardaWorld runs its U.S. operations under the name GardaWorld Federal Services. While its U.S. operations are much smaller than GEO Group and CoreCivic, it is the world's largest private security firm with operations in more than 45 countries and a total revenue of nearly U.S.$5.5 billion.
In March 2026, GardaWorld Federal Services was awarded a U.S.$313.4 million one-year federal contract with the Department of Homeland Security. The contract is to convert a massive industrial building and then operate it as an ICE processing and detention centre in Surprise, Arizona, with a capacity to hold some 1,500 people. With options to extend the contract through to February 2029, its potential total value is as much as U.S.$704 million.
Additionally, the company helped operate the "Alligator Alcatraz" concentration camp in Florida, where various human rights abuses have been documented.
CBC News reports that "The Quebec government, through Investissement Québec, invested $300 million in GardaWorld in 2022 to support the security firm's global expansion. In exchange, the province received preferred shares that earn a yearly profit, which will be paid out whenever GardaWorld decides to buy the shares back."
In 2023, the Quakers submitted a report on GardaWorld to the Denver Mayor's Office and Denver City Council, as part of a campaign to stop the city from contracting with the company to provide sheltering services to newcomers. Their report enumerates GardaWorld's misconduct around the world including at immigration detention facilities in Canada and the U.S.:
"GardaWorld has [...] been implicated in cases of human trafficking, corruption, illegal weapons use, and excessive force. [...]
"GardaWorld has operated or currently operates in several other conflict zones, including Chad, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine, and Yemen. The company's operations in these regions have similarly been rife with misconduct. [...]
"In recent years, GardaWorld has expanded its operations within the 'migrant sheltering' and immigrant detention industries. Since 2015, the company has provided detention and transportation services to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which is responsible for arresting, jailing, and deporting migrants in Canada. Under 'Detention Program' contracts with the CBSA, GardaWorld has overseen the detention and transportation of immigrants held at the British Columbia Immigration Holding Centre (BCIHC) in Vancouver and the Laval Immigration Holding Centre (IHC) in Quebec; in immigration 'day cells' located in Vancouver's Library Square; and at several other locations.
"Unsafe conditions at these immigrant detention centres have long been reported by human rights organizations and Canadian news media. [...]
"GardaWorld also operates several controversial 'migrant shelters' in the U.S., including the Fort Bliss military base-turned-shelter in El Paso, Texas. [... T]he company has operated at the shelter since it opened in March 2021 as an Office of Refugee Resettlement Emergency Intake Site (EIS) for jailing up to 10,000 unaccompanied children.
"In September 2022, the Health and Human Services Office (HHS) Inspecter General released a 58-page report detailing inhumane conditions, deficient case management, and 'the deteriorating mental health of unaccompanied minors housed at the Fort Bliss tent camp.' [...]"
(With files from Wikipedia, AFSC, CBC, Time, Investing.com.)
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
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