Back in February, the thinking public scratched its collective head as Elon Musk and DOGE took a chainsaw to agencies that serve the public. Federal agencies created to protect public health, serve veterans, advance education, maintain infrastructure, keep the public informed, and protect the safety of air and water were largely dismantled. Even before the government shutdown, those agencies were either closed or not functioning, operating with skeleton crews.
This month, the reason for the mass destruction crystallized: Trump and Russell Vought, architect of authoritarian cookbook Project 2025, stripped federal service budgets in order to move those dollars to another ledger, the one that funds federal agencies that control, police and punish the public. Those budgets have exploded, none more than that of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Analysis of government procurement data first reported by Popular Information shows a 700 percent increase in weapons spending by ICE this year. From January to October 2024, ICE spent under $10 million on weapons. For the same period ending this month, that amount jumped to more than $71 million.
Even more alarming than the amount is what ICE spent it on. Public data from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) show that ICE procured chemical weapons, “guided missile warheads” and other explosive components. (Note: Wired reports some confusion over how the purchase was categorized and concludes that ICE “probably” didn’t purchase guided missile components, but the entry on the procurement system says they did.)
WTF does ICE want with such weapons?
Americans who watch something other than Fox News’ curated reality show have already seen videos of masked ICE agents engaging in wildly disproportionate violence against members of the media and public. Over the past few weeks, federal officers shot a woman five times in Chicago, killed a man during an arrest attempt in the suburbs, and shot a priest in the head with a pepper ball, knocking him to the ground, even as he was holding his arms up in prayer.
If shooting, body slamming, and menacing members of the public at close range wasn’t enough, now ICE will have access to even more chemical weapons. ICE has already lobbed chemical irritants like tear gas, pepper spray, HC smoke grenades, and pepper balls at peaceful protesters just to create the appearance of chaos for right-wing consumption; it is unclear what an unhinged and vengeful president might order them to do with nerve agent-adjacent chemicals.
Purchasing guided missile components for ICE would be equally astounding. A “guided missile” is any missile that uses a guidance system to steer toward a target. Such missiles can destroy a target with conventional, chemical, or biological warheads. “Guided” just means the missile can navigate and adjust its flight path to a chosen target along the way, using technologies like GPS and terrain mapping.
Since Kristi Noem keeps repeating false claims that ICE only engages in brutality when agents feel threatened, query what legitimate need those agents could possibly have to strike a person, car or building that’s miles away.
A toddler with the nuclear codes
Trump, who openly fantasizes about shitting on and destroying half the county, even as he literally destroys the White House like he owns it, probably thinks he could nuke California and get away with it. Never mind that California has the world’s fourth-largest economy, contributing $81 billion more to the federal government than it receives — long-term, mid-term and even immediate consequences are not accessible to Trump’s pre-frontal cortex.
ICE is also building a public surveillance system that would make Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping salivate. The “crowd control” surveillance system features iris scanners that photograph and record facial measurements. The system includes phone hacking and tracking, and facial recognition tools loading data into AI.
ICE has partnered with Palantir Technologies, a software company co-founded by JD Vance’s BFF and anti-democracy mentor, Peter Thiel. Palantir plans to use artificial intelligence and data mining to identify, track, and deport suspected noncitizens, collecting data on US citizens along the way. According to Business Insider, ICE is paying Palantir $30 million for the platform; Palantir was slated to deliver a prototype of the ImmigrationOS platform in September.
Keep in mind that Trump has increased spending on deadly weapons for ICE by over 700 percent, yet ICE continues to claim it can’t afford bodycams for its masked agents.
Judd Legum at Popular Information sums it up: “If the immigration enforcement apparatus of the United States were its own national military, it would be the 13th-most heavily funded in the world. This puts it higher than the national militaries of Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, Turkey, and Spain — and just below Israel.”
Trump is building a police state to keep himself in power
Stephen Miller recently told assembled law enforcement officers in Memphis, Tennessee, that they should now consider themselves “unleashed.” Addressing a “crime task force” comprised of ICE, local police, the FBI, U.S. Marshals, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Miller encouraged them to go forward and “police aggressively,” concluding his talk with praise for their anticipated ruthlessness.
It’s the same unhinged directive for “unrestrained lethality” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered to military generals at Quantico last month.
It’s all of a piece: deploying the military against US citizens, pitting red states against blue, and arming masked ICE agents with sophisticated tools of war signal that Trump is building his own domestic paramilitary force to try to remain in power past 2028.
We have to admit this reality before we can prepare to meet it.
- Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.
