Former CEO of Blackwater Erik Prince’s plan to create a privately run force to aid the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts is gaining renewed steam. First reported by Politico, A 26-page document details the proposal, which seeks $25 billion to establish a force capable of deporting 600,000 people monthly. The plan, which includes deputizing at least 10,000 private citizens, would be central to achieving Trump’s stated goal of removing 12 million undocumented immigrants.
With Trump’s deportation agenda ramping up, new reports indicate the administration is looking for ways to overcome logistical hurdles that are slowing removals. According to sources familiar with internal discussions, officials have grown impatient with the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to execute mass deportations at scale, fueling speculation that Prince’s plan could be revisited.
Prince, who has deep ties to Trump, resisted characterizing the proposal as a “private army” during an interview with NewsNation. When pressed on the specifics of the plan, he dismissed concerns, insisting, “This is not some idea of a private army.” However, the document explicitly suggests granting a privatized force the authority to conduct arrests and removals on U.S. soil.
For his part, Trump has refused to rule out the proposal, stating he “wouldn’t be opposed” to the idea. His track record on immigration enforcement has already sparked controversy, including a previous suggestion to detain undocumented immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. That idea has drawn legal challenges, with civil rights groups arguing it would violate constitutional protections.
Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at further expanding Trump’s authority over immigration enforcement, including provisions that could make it easier to deputize private citizens for removals. Meanwhile, ICE has already announced increased workplace raids, a move many see as a precursor to wider crackdowns.
Prince’s proposal remains unconfirmed, but frustrations within the Trump administration over logistical hurdles have fueled speculation that such a plan could gain traction. Reports suggest that officials are growing increasingly impatient with the slow pace of removals, making the Prince-led blueprint—featuring a fleet of 100 private planes and a network of detention camps on military bases—a more attractive option.
Since the downfall of Blackwater, once closely tied to CIA operations and even described as the “private wing” of the U.S. military, Prince has been aggressively working to stage a comeback. His legacy is tainted by the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, where Blackwater operatives killed 17 Iraqi civilians in what Human Rights Watch described as a “deadly rampage.” The incident became one of the defining failures of U.S. military interventions in the Middle East.
After being sidelined during the Obama years, Prince’s ties to the Trump administration created a renewed opportunity. In 2017 and 2018, he pitched a $5 billion plan to privatize the U.S. war in Afghanistan. However, his alleged involvement in a botched mercenary operation in Libya undercut his efforts to rebrand himself.
His ambitions have since extended beyond U.S. wars. In August 2024, Prince posted a video addressing anti-government forces in Venezuela, declaring, “Your friends from the north, though we’re not with you today, we’re coming soon. We support you to the end.” Reuters had previously reported that in 2019, he lobbied the Trump administration to allow him to deploy a private army into the country.
Prince has also publicly boasted about aiding Israel’s genocide against Gaza’s civilian population, claiming he “provided the Israelis a fully funded, donated ability to flood Gaza with seawater.” Meanwhile, a United Nations group monitoring the arms embargo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo found evidence that Prince attempted to broker a deal to send mercenaries into the mineral-rich North Kivu region.
The prospect of privatizing mass deportations raises concerns that the same human rights abuses linked to private military contractors overseas could be replicated domestically. As Trump’s immigration policies grow more aggressive, other private firms are already positioning themselves to profit, with the private prison industry already reaping significant financial rewards and as deportation raids ramp up and the administration seeks ways to meet its targets, the idea of privatized immigration enforcement is no longer fringe.
Feature photo | Erik Prince speaks with political commentator Gordon Chang at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 22, 2025. Zach D Roberts | AP
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe.’ Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47
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