A crisis unfolds in plain sight

 

August 9, 2025

ABUSING POWER AND RIGHTS

The human rights crisis evolving in plain sight

A breaking report from Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-GA) office reveals the ‘horrific’ human rights calamity unfolding inside the government’s immigration detention centers. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has always had an abhorrent record of abuse, all with little accountability. The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown has further exacerbated things — and the reconciliation bill passed by Congress last month, which gives DHS the funds to double their detention capacity, will only enable more and worse abuses. Congress is culpable for rubber-stamping this crisis. The Trump administration will start detaining people on military bases as early as this month.  Aggressive quotas, aggressive tactics: The administration is trying to arrest and deport as many people as possible. The emphasis on speed and volume has led to extreme, forceful tactics.  Members of Congress have every right to know what is happening behind closed doors in detention centers; it is in fact their job to conduct this oversight. We support the lawmakers suing ICE for unfettered access to their facilities, and we will continue pushing Congress to exercise their oversight duties.  A deplorable revolving door: There's a pattern of senior ICE officials leaving their posts for leadership roles at a private prison giant and ICE’s top contractor, Washington Post reports, citing POGO’s investigation.   Dig deeper: POGO reporting on DHS’s chronic accountability failures  The Border Zone Next Door, and Its Out-of-Control Police Force

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An unsavory collaboration

The military is not meant for use in civilian law enforcement. This important guardrail is written into law. But the Trump administration has been testing this limit: quietly expanding “National Defense Area” zones and deploying thousands of active-duty soldiers to patrol the southern border; dispatching Marines to help quell anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles; and using military aircraft to carry out costly and illegal deportations. And this is apparently just the start. A recently leaked memo revealed that DHS is seeking more opportunities to involve the military in immigration enforcement. And it’s not just the memo: Amendments introduced to the House’s National Defense Authorization Act aim to further enmesh the work of defense and homeland security. Domestic deployment of war-trained troops cannot become the new normal. We’re fighting to uphold and enforce the guardrails that protect American democracy. The executive branch can far too easily abuse the armed forces to surveil the public, quash dissent, and enforce unjust laws. Read POGO’s past work on why the military should have no role in domestic affairs.   ANALYSIS The Cost of Domestic Deployment: “There is the financial cost to the American taxpayer, of course, but more important is the impact domestic deployment has and could continue to have on American society — the cost to democracy, the cost to public safety, and the cost to military readiness,” writes POGO’s Virginia Burger.

ANALYSIS

ICE Access to Medicaid Data Compromises More than Privacy

As privacy protections are destroyed, an unprecedented surveillance weapon is taking shape, writes POGO’s Don Bell. Read now.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

DOGE’s fallout

A new report from the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations gives us the first comprehensive view into the fallout from the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting rampage, and it appears DOGE wasted billions of dollars, all while using dubious math and projections to grossly overestimate the amount of money their cuts have actually saved. We are unsurprised. Though POGO has long championed rooting out and reducing government waste — DOGE’s purported mission — we have been deeply dubious of DOGE’s approach, its lack of transparency, and the glaring conflicts of interest of those involved behind the scenes. We are urging inspectors general to heed the report’s recommendations and investigate these initial findings further. What a good-faith waste reduction and spending accountability effort would actually entail: strengthened Pentagon spending oversight, increased federal spending transparency, empowered inspectors general, and safe avenues for federal employees to blow the whistle on corruption and fraud. POGO has proposed these and many other actionable solutions.

Stock trading ban gains valuable ground

A bipartisan bill that would ban lawmakers, presidents, and vice presidents from stock trading passed out of committee in the Senate. That means we have ahead of us an excellent opportunity to finally see this ban through. Your representatives must commit to prioritizing your best interests over their financial gain while in Congress. And let’s be frank: They should be doing everything they can right now to gain back the public’s trust. Email Congress and tell them that you support a stock trading ban and they should too.

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