ICE just scrubbed tens of thousands of people from its Online Detainee Locator System, leaving their families and legal teams in the dark. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, joins Zoe Alexandra and Rania Khalek to break down how DHS effectively “disappeared” at least 20,000 people with final deportation orders, as deaths in custody climb and private prison giants GEO Group and CoreCivic rake in profits from ICE’s ballooning budget.

Reichlin-Melnick explains how Trump’s mass deportation machine changed tactics after Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti – shifting to predawn raids, targeting people at airports and their own immigration check-ins, and quietly pushing arrests to 50,000 a month. Meanwhile, at least 60 people have died in ICE custody in Trump’s second term. Reichlin-Melnick says the real number is likely higher: ICE has stopped reporting deaths right after release, and cut inspections as it opens new facilities. Immigration is “a creature of Congress,” Reichlin-Melnick says, and what Congress gave ICE, it can take away. But with Trump’s veto looming, oversight may be lawmakers’ most powerful weapon. Will the new Democratic Congress rein it in?

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