Liam’s PTSD, the expanded “Mexico City” policy, and ICE’s detention camp buildout
The week’s brief, with receipts: the human cost, the policy shift, and the machinery ICE is building in plain sight.
We begin the week after attempting to take a break from the news, with very little success, to be honest. From the administration’s “Mexico City” proposal to ICE’s $38.3 million budget to expand detention centers, here are the stories we’re watching closely this week.
Liam Conejo Ramos lives with the aftermath of detention
After becoming the face of ICE’s cruelty, five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos is living with the aftermath of his days in detention. According to his father, Adrián Alexander Conejo Arias, who spoke to Telemundo, Liam “hasn’t been the same since this all happened.”
Although father and son are now back in Minnesota, the Trump administration continues pushing to deport them. Meanwhile, the five-year-old, who spent nearly two weeks in a detention center, “now wakes up crying during the night, terrified his family could be separated again,” his father told the outlet.
Vance announces the government will expand the “Mexico City” policy
This is another story that has slipped under the radar amid all the noise. Since the start of his second term, Donald Trump’s administration has imposed the so-called “Mexico City” policy, better known as the “global gag rule” by abortion rights groups. The measure prevents U.S. funds from going to foreign organizations that provide, advise, or refer patients for abortion services in their own countries. This holds even when those activities are legal and funded entirely with non-U.S. funds.
Now, according to Vice President JD Vance, the administration will expand the policy to include advocates of “radical gender ideologies” and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
“Now we’re expanding this policy to protect life, to combat DEI and the radical gender ideologies that prey on our children,” Vance told the crowd in Washington, D.C.
Vance added that the Mexico City policy was being increased to “about three times as big as it was before, and we’re proud of it, because we believe in fighting for life.”
ICE accelerates construction of detention centers with a multimillion-dollar budget
In what many have called “the accelerated construction of concentration camps,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend $38.3 million by the end of the year on detention centers to detain and process “tens of thousands of immigrants,” according to an overview of the plan published by New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office last Thursday.
Ayotte’s office said the Department of Homeland Security provided the document after she submitted an inquiry following a U.S. Senate hearing on Thursday, according to a press release.
With this budget, ICE plans to purchase 16 existing buildings and renovate them to serve as regional processing centers that can hold “1,000 to 1,500 detainees for average stays of three to seven days,” according to the plan. The goal is to deport detainees as quickly as possible.
The agency will also open eight large detention centers capable of holding 7,000 to 10,000 detainees for an average stay of around 60 days. These will serve as the “primary location” for immigrants being deported abroad.
In addition, ICE will acquire 10 more “turnkey” facilities where the agency already operates, according to the plan.
Farewell to civil rights icon Jesse Jackson
At a time when the country is reevaluating its history in real time, the passing of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. lands as a hard blow. Jackson died Tuesday at the age of 84.
The civil rights leader, Baptist minister, and founder of the Chicago nonprofit Rainbow PUSH Coalition spent his life fighting for social justice, human rights, and equality.
A key figure in the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King Jr., Jackson began with college sit-ins and demonstrations. Later ran twice as a Democratic candidate for president. He kept campaigning for equity and justice well into his eighties, pushing for stronger diversity and accountability across society, including in tech.