Five Ways The War on Terror Empowered The ICE Assault

We got an advance look at a new analysis from the Costs of War Project about the heritage of the 9/11 era on current ICE operations

By Sam Thielman, Forever Wars

OVER THE WEEKEND, Jose Oliveres revealed in The Guardian that ICE has contracted with a security firm called MVM to hunt for undocumented people who entered the United States as unaccompanied children. “ICE says it wants to confirm the children’s location, school enrollment and overall wellness, including checking for signs of abuse or trafficking, according to the contracting document,” Oliveres reported.

If you’re thinking to yourself that MVM sounds familiar, perhaps you’re remembering its earlier incarnation from the War on Terror. Back then, it provided force protection for CIA and NSA officers in Iraq. In 2018, I reported on an earlier ICE contract with MVM, this one to ferry unaccompanied migrant children across the ICE network of warehoused-sized cages. They did so “using unmarked vehicles, commercial airlines, and makeshift detention centers,” according to a recent lawsuit Jose reports on. That lawsuit, which is ongoing, was brought by two Guatemalan fathers who allege MVM complicity in “torture, enforced disappearance and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.”

If only there had been warning signs about the company’s willingness to do the dirty work of empire.

The MVM contract is one example among many—seriously, someone should write a book—of the heritage of the War on Terror manifesting within the operations of ICE, an institution that war literally created. Such examples are the subject of an excellent and insightful analysis published this morning by the Costs of War Project at Brown University. Written by Widener University Delaware Law School Professor Elizabeth Beavers, it provides a vivid, concise framework along five critical and listicle-ready areas for understanding that heritage.