• 15 Dec, 2025 *

Chapter Summary

Wolf talks about the use of privatized troops in Iraq, pointing to Blackwater as an example. Blackwater soldiers were a private (for-profit) military contractor that the U.S. sent into Iraq. More than 160,000 Blackwater soldiers occupied Iraq at one point. We hired these contractors and spent billions on who-knows-what, while defending or ignoring atrocities they committed in our name abroad. It wasn’t just Blackwater—multiple military contractors like Triple Canopy cashed in on the same mercenaries-for-hire model. In 2006, the transitional government the U.S. imposed on Iraq issued Order 17 which made military contractors immune for prosecution for war crimes. In 2008, a new agreement reasserted their liability under Iraqi criminal law. Blackwater was also hired by DHS, responding to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Their official statement was that they were there to join the hurricane relief effort. But in reality they patrolled streets, carried large firearms, and told reporters they were "securing neighborhoods." Mercenaries from several companies both foreign and domestic showed up to guard private businesses, homes, and government institutions. Wealthy people hired some of these companies to protect their properties, and the police ignored potentially deadly interactions between the security forces and civilians. One example of this is documented as a private-hired mercenary claimed he was attacked by "Black gangbangers" so he opened fire in their general direction until all he heard was "moaning and screaming". No police report was ever filed. Then Senator Barack Obama said of the federal contracts "It strikes me...that they may not be the best use of money." These paramilitary forces weren’t accountable to the same set of rules as our military. Lobbyists fought hard to make sure that was the case. Wolf compares them to German brown-shirts and Italian Arditi.

What’s Happened Since

Obama seemed to try to reduce the outsourcing of military activities, expanding the definition of what could only be performed by government employees and ordering agencies to set percentage targets for reduction of private contractor use. But at the same time, he outsourced sensitive intelligence operations in Africa. During his second term, he increased the number of military contractors on the ground in Afghanistan to outnumber uniformed personnel three to one. This paper asserts that while Obama did inherit a military which depended on contractors for several reasons, he continued the practice and at times increased their use. Trump "prioritized the financial interested of America’s defense contractors" during his first term. Biden appointed several defense contractor stooges to high-level Pentagon positions, making it clear that he had no interest in breaking the trend. He also continued Trump’s integration of the military and Silicon Valley.

But there’s another paramilitary force that Wolf doesn’t talk much, if at all, about. Since its inception in 2004, ICE’s enforcement and removal operations budget has soared. Only twice has the annual budget for ICE seen drops from the prior year (from 2015 to 2016, and from 2019 to 2020) and those drops were modest. Obama was nicknamed the deporter-in-chief by immigrant rights activists. He established the DACA program, and made the removal of immigrants who had established roots in the country a lower priority than those who had more recently arrived and those with criminal records. Still, he deported more people than his predecessors. While claims that he had an "official" policy of child separation aren’t true, he did have policies that resulted in children being turned over to child services agencies due to the processing of their mothers. Trump continued this policy in his first term. But let’s backtrack for some historical context: In the 80’s the government signed a contract with the Corrections Corporation of America, kicking off a privatized immigration detention system. In ’96 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act required undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions to be detained. After 9/11 the line between criminal and civil enforcement of immigration became muddled with the formation of DHS and its subsidiary agencies. The for-profit industry of immigrant detention boomed. As early as 2007, reports indicated that conditions in detention facilities did not meet humane standards. Detainees were physically abused, denied medical care and access to lawyers and relatives, were served undercooked food, and the facilities themselves were infested with rats and roaches. In 2004 32 people died in ICE custody. 2025 is the 2nd most deadly, with 27 so far. Conditions have not improved. Consistently through every administration, concerns have been raised about abuse and inhumane conditions in detention facilities. The average daily population in ICE detention was fairly steady under Bush, rose a bit and then stayed fairly steady under Obama, rose every year of Trump’s first term until 2020 when it dropped (due to the pandemic), rose every year again under Biden who surpassed Obama’s previous numbers in 2024, and has reached an all-time record point during Trump’s second term with a drastic increase to ICE’s budget by Congress this past Summer.

Today’s Comparison

The government continues its partnership with Silicon Valley and defense contractors. But we also have ICE roaming the streets in masks and harassing Black and brown people. This was my first thought when I thought of a paramilitary force. They are operating with less oversight due to cuts to DHS watchdog groups. This administration is determined to enact a cruel immigration policy, and ICE agents are the masked face of this operation. It’s often unclear whether someone is actually with ICE or if they’ve simply taken up a racist vigilante approach to terrorizing immigrants. They’re detaining US citizens. At least one veteran citizen, a recipient of a purple heart, has been deported. This administration has weaponized ICE against immigrants here on student visas who dare to speak out against Zionism and genocide. We’re deporting people to countries they’ve never stepped foot in before, making deals with these third countries like El Salvador to hold people without due process in places like CECOT.

Trump has also attempted to federalize the National Guard against governor wishes, which hasn’t quite gone his way in the courts. There are still some guards active in California, and the deployment in DC has been extended. We’re waiting for a Supreme Court decision on the matter and if they side with the Trump administration, I imagine we’ll see a broad and swift return to federalized troops in our streets to chill dissent under the guise of addressing violent crime.

#fascist-seeds