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mass deportations
One Siege, Two Fronts: How U.S. Power Shapes Gaza and the American Security State
The systems operating in Gaza and across the U.S. do not exist to keep people safe. They exist to manage, displace, and contain populations deemed problematic.
Jul 10, 2025
The crisis in Gaza is no longer limited to military operations backed by U.S. weapons and diplomatic support. American involvement now extends into the structure of the siege itself, including the use of private contractors, control over humanitarian aid, and the deployment of surveillance systems.
Meanwhile, a separate security campaign is unfolding inside the United States. The Department of Homeland Security, through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is deploying biometric devices to monitor and track individuals. At the same time, it is targeting safe spaces such as residential neighborhoods and carrying out mass deportations that resemble a coordinated population removal effort.
Aid and Enforcement on the Ground
Since May, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-based organization backed by the State Department, has overseen food distribution in military-controlled areas of Gaza. United Nations agencies have described the operation as part of a broader effort to weaponize food, using aid as a tool of control rather than relief. American contractors guard their sites under firms like UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions. Contractors have reported frequent, systematic use of live ammunition, stun grenades, and pepper spray against people trying to collect food. The firms currently deny these allegations.
Cable news networks have mainly avoided framing the destruction in Gaza as part of a broader strategy to depopulate the area and reshape it under the pretext of security.
These operations are not improvised. They follow a model of crowd management that treats aid like a security mission. Cameras and facial recognition systems operated by U.S. contractors are used to track “persons of interest,” with the data shared directly with Israeli forces. The result is hunger being managed by armed control, not alleviated by relief.
Media Framing
U.S. media is full of stories about American aid dropping into Gaza, emphasizing coordination and relief. Coverage declares that millions of meals have been delivered. What is seldom discussed are allegations that these operations employ the same tactics as military occupations, including armed checkpoints, surveillance, and restricted access to necessities.
Coverage of other civilian tragedies in Gaza, such as the bombing of a seaside café or the killing of Dr. Marwan al-Sultan while he was directing a hospital, is often sparse, brief, and presented without political context. Meanwhile, televised segments about aid distribution are framed as humanitarian triumphs. The result is a distorted picture that hides the U.S.’ role in transforming humanitarian aid into controlled violence.
Institutionalized Civilian Targeting
Gaza’s healthcare system is collapsing. Dozens of medical workers have been killed in airstrikes, and hospitals have been reduced to rubble. The bombing of places like the coastal café, where families and children gathered, shows how civilian spaces are being deliberately erased. These are not military sites or areas of active combat. Their destruction appears intended to break down ordinary life and push people toward displacement. Dr. Marwan al-Sultan, a respected cardiologist and director of the Indonesian Hospital, was the 70th healthcare worker killed by Israeli strikes in just 50 days, according to Palestinian medical organizations.
In much of the U.S. media, these events are framed as accidents or isolated tragedies, often presented alongside official statements from the Israeli government and vague promises of investigation. Rarely are they balanced with independent or opposing perspectives, such as the claim that hospitals and civilian infrastructure are being deliberately targeted. While outlets like Reuters have published some reporting on these issues, such coverage remains rare among major U.S. media platforms. Cable news networks have mainly avoided framing the destruction in Gaza as part of a broader strategy to depopulate the area and reshape it under the pretext of security.
Domestic Mirroring
Inside the U.S. public sphere, a new wave of repression has emerged. What has been called the “Palestine exception” has taken hold, where pro-Palestinian speech on campuses, in academic work, and advocacy is regularly treated as suspicious or subject to punishment. At the same time, similar expressions on other issues are largely ignored.
Reports from Council on American-Islamic Relations show a record-high spike in anti-Muslim incidents in 2024, directly linked to backlash over the war in Gaza. This surge has also been reflected in the wave of Islamophobic rhetoric that followed Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor.
Just as Palestinians in Gaza are placed at risk simply by going to food distribution sites, an act they are expected to perform, migrants in the United States face detention when attending immigration hearings or routine check-ins they are required to complete.
Against this backdrop, ICE has expanded its use of biometric surveillance tools, including facial recognition, mobile fingerprint scanners, and iris scans. These technologies closely resemble those used by U.S. contractors in Gaza to monitor aid recipients and flag individuals for Israeli forces. In both cases, the tools serve a similar purpose. They identify, track, and remove targeted populations under the justification of security.
Just as Palestinians in Gaza are placed at risk simply by going to food distribution sites, an act they are expected to perform, migrants in the United States face detention when attending immigration hearings or routine check-ins they are required to complete. Like reports of U.S. contractors deploying flash-bang grenades during aid distribution in Gaza, ICE has used the same tactics in residential areas during militarized domestic operations.
Displacement Without Being Named
In both Gaza and the United States, forced displacement is rarely acknowledged for what it is. Media coverage presents it through isolated incidents—airstrikes, deportations, legal actions—detached from the larger pattern of population removal.
In Gaza, proposals to move Palestinians to Egypt or other countries are described as humanitarian efforts or part of rebuilding plans. These descriptions overlook the systematic destruction of homes, hospitals, and neighborhoods. The coverage treats these as consequences of war, not as part of a coordinated effort to make civilian life impossible.
In the United States, deportations are reported through legal categories. Media narratives focus on status or procedure, rather than the coercive structure behind them. The focus is on expulsion, not immigration reform or options for legal integration.
The systems operating in Gaza and across the U.S. do not exist to keep people safe. They exist to manage, displace, and contain populations deemed problematic. The primary beneficiaries are those who build and maintain these systems, such as defense contractors, private surveillance firms, border security consultants, and the officials who award them contracts.
The more threats these systems claim to identify, the more funding they receive. The more disorder it produces, the more authority it demands. From Gaza to cities across the U.S., the goal is not resolution. It is control. And control is profitable.
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'A Form of Torture': Detainees Allege Mistreatment at 'Alligator Alcatraz'
"We're human beings; we're not dogs," said one detainee. "We're like rats in an experiment."
Jul 08, 2025
Detainees at the "Alligator Alcatraz" concentration camp in the Florida Everglades say they are enduring inhumane conditions, including inadequate and maggot-infested food, inability to bathe, flooding, and denial of religious practice, CBS News Miami reported Tuesday.
Officially known as Krome Detention Center, the 5,000-bed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration detention facility located on the grounds of a rarely used municipal airport approximately 20 miles west of Miami last week began receiving people arrested during the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign. While U.S. President Donald Trump and other proponents of the prison have sadistically joked about alligators eating escaping prisoners, the biggest dangers faced by detainees are found inside the facility's walls.
"A lot of us have our residency documents and we don't understand why we're here."
"They're not respecting our human rights," one detainee told CBS News Miami during a phone interview. "We're human beings; we're not dogs. We're like rats in an experiment."
"I don't know their motive for doing this, if it's a form of torture," he added. "A lot of us have our residency documents and we don't understand why we're here."
Another inmate, the Cuban reggaeton artist Leamsy La Figura, said guards "only brought a meal once a day and it had maggots."
"They never take off the lights for 24 hours," he claimed. "The mosquitoes are as big as elephants," and "there's no water to take a bath, it's been four days since I've taken a bath."
A Colombian detainee said his mental health is breaking down.
"I'm on the edge of losing my mind. I've gone three days without taking my medicine," he said. "It's impossible to sleep with this white light that's on all day."
"They took the Bible I had and they said here there is no right to religion," the detainee added. "And my Bible is the one thing that keeps my faith, and now I'm losing my faith."
DHS officials have not yet responded to the detainees' allegations.
On Monday, Florida state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-17) confirmed that "several immigrants who aren't facing any criminal charges" were nevertheless sent from the Orange County Jail in Orlando to Alligator Alcatraz.
This, after Democratic state lawmakers were denied entry to the facility last week. The Florida Division of Emergency Management claimed that "the legal authority cited by the legislators does not extend to this facility in the manner requested."
"Florida statute grants inspection authority to a legislative committee, not to individual legislators engaging in political theater," the agency added.
Meanwhile, Alligator Alcatraz merchandise offered at the Florida Republican Party's online store has been "selling like hotcakes," according to Evan Power, the state GOP chair.
Responding to this, Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) told The Guardian that "cruelty was always the point."
"Selling hats and merchandise for a place that is about to become a hell on Earth for thousands of people who are going to be subjected to some of the worst conditions and human rights abuses you could think of is disgusting," he added.
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'Alligator Alcatraz' Denounced as Epitome of GOP Dehumanization and Cruelty Toward Migrants
"There's no clearer illustration of the brutality of the Trump administration than robbing funds from cities supporting asylum-seekers to build... a f*up Floridian replica of one of our most notorious prisons to disappear, isolate, and abuse immigrants."
Jun 25, 2025
Rights advocates and Democratic officials across the United States this week are condemning the Trump administration and Florida Republicans' effort to construct a migrant detention facility in the Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz."
Republican Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier laid out plans to transform the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport—previously called the Everglades Jetport—into a temporary detention facility for undocumented immigrants in a video posted on the social media site X last week.
The site "presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out, there's not much waiting for 'em other than alligators and pythons," he said in the video. "Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide."
"Detaining immigrants at a remote airfield in the Everglades, with no clear legal framework or due process, is about fear, not safety."
Citing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Reuters reported that "the Florida facility, estimated to cost $450 million annually, could eventually house up to 5,000 people."
According to The New York Times, "A spokesperson for the attorney general said work on the new facility started on Monday morning." The effort is directly tied to President Donald Trump's push for mass deportations that critics denounce as devastating for families and the economy.
Trump's homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, told USA Today that the facility will be partly funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Shelter and Services Program. Her department said on X that "we are working on cost-effective and innovative ways to deliver on the American people's mandate for mass deportations. Alligator Alcatraz will expand facilities and bed space in just days, thanks to our partnership with Florida."
Responding to that post, Uthmeier wrote that "I'm proud to help support President Trump and Secretary Noem in their mission to fix our illegal immigration problem once and for all. Alligator Alcatraz and other Florida facilities will do just that. We in Florida will fight alongside this administration to keep Florida safe, strong, and free."
Florida turning airfield in the Everglades into "Alligator Alcatraz" to hold detained migrants
[image or embed]
— MSNBC (@msnbc.com) June 24, 2025 at 1:16 PM
The plan has been lambasted by some local environmentalists and Indigenous people, as well as Florida Democrats. José Javier Rodríguez, a Democrat running to be the state's attorney general, said in a Wednesday statement that Uthmeier's Alligator Alcatraz "isn't a serious plan, it's a reckless, rushed project that puts lives and resources at risk."
"Detaining immigrants at a remote airfield in the Everglades, with no clear legal framework or due process, is about fear, not safety," he continued. "The most obvious reason seems to be political theater, just trying to get attention in Washington, rather than looking out for the interests of our state and its people."
"Now they're funding it with FEMA dollars—money meant to help us prepare for hurricanes and natural disasters, especially in states like Florida," he added, also noting Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' use of emergency powers to seize the site.
Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) also blasted the plan, saying in a Tuesday statement that "Donald Trump, his administration, and his enablers have made one thing brutally clear: They intend to use the power of government to kidnap, brutalize, starve, and harm every single immigrant they can—because they have a deep disdain for immigrants and are using them to scapegoat the serious issues facing working people."
"They would rather us point fingers at immigrants for the housing crisis, violence, lack of healthcare, and high costs that plague our nation rather than blame the inaction of politicians and greedy corporations," he argued. "This was never about public safety. It was never about putting America first."
Frost continued:
They target migrants, rip families apart, and subject people to conditions that amount to physical and psychological torture in facilities that can only be described as hell on Earth. Now, they want to erect tents in the blazing Everglades sun and call it immigration enforcement. They don't care if people live or die; they only care about cruelty and spectacle.
I've toured these facilities myself—real ones, not the makeshift tents they plan to put up—and even those detention centers contain conditions that are nothing short of human rights abuses. Places where people are forced to eat, sleep, shower, and defecate all in the same room. Places where medical attention is virtually nonexistent.
Anyone who supports this is a disgusting excuse for a human being, let alone a public servant.
Frost wasn't the only federal lawmaker who sounded the alarm this week. Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a fierce critic of the president's anti-migrant agenda, said Tuesday that "there's no clearer illustration of the brutality of the Trump administration than robbing funds from cities supporting asylum-seekers to build 'Alligator Alcatraz.'"
"Nope, that's not an island for bad-behaving alligators your family could visit after Disney," she wrote on social media. "It's a f*up Floridian replica of one of our most notorious prisons to disappear, isolate, and abuse immigrants."
Notably, Trump last month advocated for reopening the island prison of Alcatraz in California's San Francisco Bay.
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