SHOCK SECRETS of Trump ICE Facilities EMERGE

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]Well, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement uh reported another death of one of its detainees. That puts the total of people who have died in ICE custody at 18. It's Ken Harbaugh with the Midas Touch Network. Conditions in ICE detention camps are horrific.

[00:00:18]Amnesty International has deemed the methods employed by ICE agents at these facilities tantamount to torture. The Department of Homeland Security is on track to see the highest death rate among detainees in its history. If the trend continues, ICE is set to surpass the 31 detainee deaths that the agency recorded back in 2025. That was a two decade high. And if you look at historical data by ICE, the agency is set to also record the highest ever detainee death tally. For all the attention that ISIS tactics on America's streets received over the past year, their ability to operate their detention camps with apparent impunity is something that cannot go unanswered. As anyone who has watched this show knows, one of the things we do for every elected member of Congress and candidate is ask whether they will commit to holding the kinds of investigations once the house flips that will result in prosecutions. Chris Goldsmith, Army combat vet, extremism researcher, and founder of Veterans Fighting Fascism, has thought about this a lot. We don't actually need new laws to hold the murderers and torturers at ICE accountable. We just need to enforce the ones we have. I'll let Chris take it from here. Chris, thanks for joining.

[00:01:35]The reports out of these ICE detention facilities are absolutely horrific. And it's not just the lack of infrastructure. Some of these warehouses were never designed to concentrate human beings. They were designed for boxes.

[00:01:48]They were designed for cardboard. It's not just the infrastructure. It's the behavior of the agents and some of those reports are just shocking. Can you give us a rundown and then I I really want to focus on what we can do about it because accountability is coming. So, the Washington Post just came out with an exclusive where they talked about all of the uh reports of use of force, which is a broad term that is that is being used across ICE facilities nationwide. That includes things like tasing people, tasing people who are handcuffed. It includes other physical assaults. Uh and the rates of these events happening are skyrocketing.

[00:02:34]Now, what I think that people need to recognize is that these kinds of abuses are kind of an inherent byproduct of the Trump administration's dehumanization of immigrants. And people should also keep in mind that the Trump administration started, the second Trump administration started by deporting citizens, right?

[00:02:57]that there were children with cancer who were getting put into these ICE facilities with undocumented parents and then later deported. So folks might feel helpless about this. I mean, we have reached a point where the idea of the United States having concentration camps is acceptable enough that it's happening. Uh, and there are not, you know, uh, there are not like massive protests every day in in the way that I think you or I might have expected 5 years ago. Uh, you know, in in the idea, the prospect of of concentration camps being a thing. But I want people to be hopeful in that there are rules on the books, there are laws that exist today that that can be prosecuted by the next administration. The same uh the same things that the same laws that were written to prosecute the KKK can be used to prosecute the Trump administration.

[00:03:58]Now, the the Trump administration has been kind of turning the civil rights laws on their head in going after things like the SPLC for infiltrating neo-Nazi organizations.

[00:04:10]But when those civil rights laws were passed, they also knew that the government had been infiltrated by the KKK. And that's why you have laws like um conspiracy against rights and uh deprivation of rights under color of law section 241 and section 242 of US code 18 that is specifically for government officials who use their position their authorities to abuse people and take away their constitutionally protected rights. It's worth driving home that you don't need to be an American citizen to be protected by the Constitution. You simply need to be on American soil. That is the way that the Constitution is written. And that is the way that that these uh specific statutes, they say any person, it doesn't say any citizen, any American, it's very clear any person who's deprived of these rights, uh, you know, is is the target here. Let me give just a quick rundown on the deprivation of rights we're talking about just to drive it home for folks. This is from an investigation led by Senator Oaf which revealed 206 reports of medical neglect, 88 of physical and sexual abuse, 40 involving children, 44 of those involved family separation, removing mothers who are breastfeeding their infants from their infants. I mean, I think we have to get over our queasiness about calling these concentration camps. And I I want your take on how to structure these prosecutions, and the value of targeting foot soldiers, which are in some ways easier targets because there's more evidence about them. they're the ones pulling the proverbial trigger versus the the ring leaders or the commanders who bear ultimate responsibility. How do you think about the strategy of prosecuting extremist organizations, especially in light of the fact that the extremist organization in this case is a department of our own government? The Federal Bureau of Investigations, the FBI, was was the first thing that they became really good at was targeting the mob. It it was targeting organized crime. And the way that you sweep up the mob is is you look for the underlings and you, you know, you prosecute them potentially give them more lenient sentences after they're they're uh proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of their their peers or, you know, in a prosecutorial agreement ahead of time so that they basically rat off rat out their bosses. Now, this type of thing might be necessary because the Trump administration is violating the law by destroying records. They are using apps like Signal and autodeing messages to delete the evidence trail.

[00:07:20]They they started this at the very beginning of the second Trump Trump administration. they they are reinterpreting very clear statutes about the necessary um uh uh retention of documents and and of evidence. These are laws that were passed again because of really terrible happening in our country after Richard Nixon tried to use the FBI against his political opponents.

[00:07:46]That's when Congress passed these documentation laws.

[00:07:51]>> Hey everyone, it's Ken. Super quick break to remind you that I've got a Substack page. Please consider subscribing for exclusive content and bi-weekly Substack lives. And for the next month, every paid subscription goes towards my upcoming reporting trip to Ukraine. Thanks for the support. The link is below. Slav Ukraine.

[00:08:12]It is worth going after, you know, every individual who pulled the trigger to kill Alex Prey and uh Renee Nicole Good and everyone who is involved in the cover up in preventing local authorities and the FBI from doing a thorough investigation. Prosecutors were uh in Minnesota where federal prosecutors resigned in mass because they were denied the opportunity to pursue justice after those murders. So, every single person uh who's involved in violating the rights of whether it be Alex Prey or Renegood or of any immigrant who's been scooped up, had um unlawful use of force used against them. Uh or an American citizen again who's who's had their their rights violated. Every single officer who engages in the physical violence is should be held accountable and everyone in the chain of command who's covering for them who's allowing this to happen even more needs to be charged with conspiracy against rights.

[00:09:17]How can this larger conversation, not just between you and me, but this narrative that is building about accountability, is there a way to leverage that to be used right now as either a deterrent to force those ICE agents in those facilities to think twice before they tase someone who's handcuffed or rip a nursing infant away from its mother? Can this conversation be used to give that person second thoughts or to encourage the kinds of defections we will need to to gather evidence to undermine morale at ICE uh and to break the organization from within? I'm glad you asked that because the way that the Task Force Butler Institute hunts neo-Nazi organizations and the way that we go from evidence gathering to prosecution, a lot of it is kind of like a PR campaign in an education campaign and we are convincing politicians on both sides of the aisle that a a crime did happen, b you can identify the perpetrators, and c there is the political will among the people, the voters to to to see you pursue justice as a law enforcement official, as as an elected representative. So, I think that everybody who's watching this show, simply talking out loud about this, about pursuing justice, you know, we we find ourselves, and I'm the bad news guy, right? That's that's why I'm on the show. We find ourselves talking about the problems all the time, but it's also important to talk about the solutions.

[00:10:56]So, educating people on these these things that you can Google yourself, section 242 and section 241, conspiracy against rights is 241. Uh, deprivation of rights under color of law is 242. You can read these. They're written in plain English. You don't need a law degree to to get a general understanding of of what these look like. And and simply, you know, through conversation, it it will rise up. it will bubble up into elected representatives who are who are making part of this uh making this part of their campaign. I mean, we are in a campaign year for the midterm elections.

[00:11:34]There's no reason that people shouldn't be reaching out to candidates who are soliciting your vote right now for primaries or for the general. If they want your support, you should tell them, I I will actively support you and reward these candidates if they do this. I will actively support you if you commit to using every ounce of leverage and power that you have to see the Trump administration from the lowest ICE officer on the street, you know, physically putting their hands on somebody and violating their rights to the president of the United States to ensure that they are held accountable for violating the laws that we currently have have on the books. We don't need new laws. The laws are already there.

[00:12:17]That's that's the biggest thing I always need to convince cops and politicians when it comes to hate groups. The laws are there. Just use them.

[00:12:25]>> Folks who've been watching this show and us know that one of the things we do every time an elected or a candidate comes on is is pin them down on that commitment if they flip the if we flip the house in November to hold the kinds of hearings with teeth that will hold ICE accountable. not a committee, but a full-on commission, Warren style, if you will, to bring these criminals to to account. What have you got coming up on on Offense? Where can people find it?

[00:12:59]And how's that going?

[00:13:00]>> So, the latest episode of On Offense is with Tim Heathy. He works alongside Jack Smith today. Um, and he's he's the first guest that I have had on where I I kind of don't agree with his premise. He he was an investigator for Charlottesville.

[00:13:18]He was an investigator for January 6. He was the lead investigator for both of those. And and he's a former former federal prosecutor um district attorney out of uh Western Virginia. And uh it it is uh a healthy discussion I think because he was pushing back on maybe some of my cynicism and I was pushing on his um uh his his continued faith in in the system. Um you know without ruining anything it's it's a it's a pretty deep discussion about whether or not the system as it exists today still can work. And and one of the things that I am much more um aggressive on than than him, and he's a former federal prosecutor, someone who investigated Charlottesville in January 6th, is I want to see more heads rolling than I think he does. So, I I want to encourage people to look for Onoffense anywhere that you get your podcasts and subscribe to Valor Media Network on YouTube to watch this episode and and every uh every other one. Cuz what what I'm trying to do with this show is I'm not hooking it to news. I'm hooking it to the moment that we've that we're in right now and will continue to be in for years. The the premise of the show on offense is to ask each one of my guests, what can we do now? and in the future to hold the bad guys accountable. That's that's my whole thing. And uh you know the advice that we got back in November from Tad Sturmer who he and I were talking about when are ICE agents going to start pulling the trigger. We were less than two months away from from that happening. So all of these conversations will remain relevant sadly >> long into the future.

[00:15:06]>> Links below. Chris, thanks as always for joining us. We'll talk to you again uh hopefully next week.

[00:15:11]>> Thanks a lot, brother. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipowski, ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com.