Erik Prince Pushes $25B Deal To Privatize Deportations

The Guardian reports:

Silicon Valley has played a sizable part in the early days of Donald Trump’s new administration, but another familiar face in the MAGA-verse is beginning to emerge: businessman Erik Prince, oft-described by his critics as a living “Bond villain”.

Prince is the most famous mercenary of the contemporary era and the founder of the now defunct private military company Blackwater. For a time, it was a prolific privateer in the “war on terror,” racking up millions in US government contracts by providing soldiers of fortune to the CIA, Pentagon and beyond.

Now he is a central figure among a web of other contractors trying to sell Trump advisers on a $25 billion deal to privatize the mass deportations of 12 million migrants. Prince also has the ear of Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, and was a character witness for her Senate confirmation.

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Politico first reported on Prince’s deportation pitch to the Trump administration late last month.

Prince, the brother of former Education Sec. Betsy Devos, appeared here in 2023 when he went on trial in Austria for arms trafficking.

In 2022, he appeared here when he told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he could have prevented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Also in 2022, he told Steve Bannon that the US should be supporting Putin because he hates LGBTQ people.

Later that year, Prince was exposed for having spied on progressive groups.

In 2021, Prince was charging Afghan refugees $6500 for seats on planes doing evacuations.