OPINION: Greed, Corruption, War, and Silencing Dissent

Tom Homan accepting a bribe signals just how bad things are, but it's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg

Tom Homan at the 2024 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona | Gage Skidmore | Creative Commons

A recent report by Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian at MSNBC uncovered an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into Tom Homan, Trump's Border Czar, accepting a $50,000 bribe. According to the reporting, based on internal documents reviewed by MSNBC, the FBI has video recordings of the transaction and was waiting to see if Homan would fulfill his promise once he became Trump’s mass deportation hustler.

The report indicates that the FBI began investigating Homan after a suspect in a different case alleged he was accepting payments in exchange for awarding contracts. The FBI, acting in an undercover capacity, recorded Homan accepting the money in cash in West Texas in September 2024. Readers will recall my reporting in July, when an unknown company, registered to a home address in Tuckahoe, Virginia, was awarded an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contract for a detention center at Fort Bliss worth over $1.2 billion.

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While there are no connections yet available regarding Homan accepting bribes and who benefited from them, contract awards were seemingly already promised as ICE was procuring contracts for increased deportation capacity as early as June 2024. There was an expectation of stricter immigration policies regardless of who won the election, with Trump offering the biggest boon. Unsurprisingly, ICE immediately sought additional requests to greatly expand its detention capacity on November 6, the same day Trump was declared the winner of the election.

As reported by Marlon Weems at the Journeyman in November, we saw private prison stocks soar immediately after the election in anticipation of the White House using their prisons to house migrants. Then, in June 2025, we began to see more frequent reports about no-bid contracts being awarded, raising many questions about possible backroom deals having been negotiated ahead of time (and still being suspiciously awarded).

Heritage Foundation cronie Mike Howell reminded us in November that migrant detentions are about exploiting people for profit

To fulfill its promise, the administration seemingly started deeming people as criminals based on dubious standards to help keep beds full. Recently, ICE awarded a contract to GEO Group, one of the largest private prison firms in the U.S. The contract for the Delaney facility in Newark, New Jersey, is for 15 years and worth an estimated $1 billion, generating $60 million annually for the company, according to a press release by GEO Group.

Countless citizens have been held in ICE facilities across the country due to broad racial profiling; at least four have been held at the Delaney facility alone.

The no-bid contracts continue to flourish. New Jersey Spotlight News uncovered plans to use Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey to hold 1,000 to 3,000 migrants and expedite deportation flights. The Pentagon’s involvement in domestic law enforcement and immigration policy is continuing to grow under Trump. By employing the military in city takeovers and deportations, along with more than 1,000 local and state law enforcement agencies assisting ICE and granting other agencies ICE-like powers, the administration is challenging the line that separates powers outlined in the 10th Amendment.

As Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a memo warning reporters with Pentagon credentials not to publish anything that hasn’t been previously approved or lose their credentials, the U.S. military is increasing its presence in the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border. All of this, as it draws up plans to go to war with Venezuela under pretenses, and plans potential military strikes inside Mexico. Meanwhile, the White House is making deals with a government whose leaders have known links to drug smuggling operations.

As readers will recall, in February, Hegseth made a comment suggesting he was seeking unilateral power for himself and military generals to conduct drone strikes, hinting he or his generals had already done so in Somalia. Authorizing drone strikes is typically reserved only for the president, and the power has never been handed down before. The Pentagon authorizing strikes on vessels in the Gulf of Mexico and baselessly alleging they are drug boats paints a harrowing picture when considering how much power has been loosely delegated to bloodthirsty white nationalists.

All of this signals high levels of corruption. From secret deals between Trump and the Saudis and nefarious deals with Israel to turn Gaza into a resort, to threatening to invade Venezuela, and now Afghanistan for their vast resources, the Trump White House is arguably the most openly corrupt administration in U.S. history. To argue that the administration is not operating in bad faith is a waste of time, especially regarding free speech after the Department of Homeland Security declared that criticizing Trump, federal agents, and Trump supporters is “hateful rhetoric,” and just after the obvious targeting of Jimmy Kimmel by the administration.

The White House is showing the country how far it’s willing to go to silence dissent. Warning Pentagon reporters, while simultaneously threatening to take legacy media’s broadcast licenses away due to “97% poor coverage” of Trump, doesn’t get much more authoritarian. Challenging everything from the whitewashing of a well-known racist and bigot, and silencing those who dare to mention his avowed beliefs, to the anti-immigrant and anti-Black propaganda, is important to expose, address, and push back against the neo-fascist movement in the U.S.

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As the White House continues to beat the drums of war, against its own citizens as well as foreign nations, one cannot overlook the objectively insane amounts of corruption happening right in front of our faces. While Homan accepting $50,000 is bad enough, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the amounts of money being generated by what is arguably one of the most corrupt families ever seen.

From bitcoin, market manipulation, and war to mass incarceration, immigration, and government surveillance of everyone, including left-leaning groups (following the traditions of the FBI monitoring civil rights and racial justice collectives), the Trump family and their cronies in the White House have their hands in every piece of the pie made by dishonest brokers using rotten intent and duplicity as its main ingredients.

These are troubling times indeed.

Palantir’s ICE Data Collection Tool, Raven

Below is the Privacy Impact Assessment for an ICE data collection tool created by Palantir. DHS issued the assessment in April 2023. It covers a tool known as Raven, a custom-built app for ICE that was being employed after ICE stopped using Falcon, its previous data collection tool for field operations. The assessment is quite telling and shows just how easily they can monitor anyone, including citizens, and how it's been used in previous cases.

ICE-HSI Data Collection Tool Privacy Impact

446KB ∙ PDF file

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I’m an independent investigative journalist who enjoys digging deeper into the stories you see on the news. Find my work at Unicorn Riot, The Antagonist Magazine, Latino Rebels, and more. I’m also on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, and Threads. To support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber or making a donation via Venmo, PayPal, or Cash App.