Lawfare Daily: ‘Deportation, Inc.’ and the Rise of the Immigration Enforcement Economy
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 December 2025
⏱️ 46 minutes
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Summary
Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with SITU’s Deputy Director of Research Gauri Bahuguna, Detention Watch Network’s Advocacy Director Setareh Ghandehari, the American Immigration Council’s Policy Director Nayna Gupta, and Just Futures Law’s Executive Director Paromita Shah to discuss the rise of the immigration enforcement economy following the recent release of “Deportation, Inc.” a new video series from SITU and Lawfare.
They talk about why the government outsources the critical immigration enforcement functions of deportation, interdiction, and deportation to the private sector, and how this system evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The ICE director, Todd Lyons, summarized his goal for DHS, which is that he wanted the deportation system to run like Amazon Prime, but with human beings. |
| 0:12.7 | And I think that really encapsulates, like, the really sick juncture we have now between corporate interests and immigration enforcement and detention. |
| 0:23.9 | It's the Lawfare podcast. I'm Tyler McBrion, managing editor of lawfare, with C2's deputy |
| 0:30.0 | director of research, Gori Bahuggana, Detention Watch Network's advocacy director, Sitaria Gandahari, |
| 0:36.6 | the American Immigration Council's policy director, |
| 0:38.8 | Naina Gupta, and Just Feature Law's executive director, Parmeet the Shah. |
| 0:43.8 | We will absolutely advance proposals to strengthen the accountability and oversight mechanisms |
| 0:50.0 | that have now been gutted and to make them more effective than they've ever been. |
| 0:54.5 | If the question is, how do we get rid of these entrenched private interests, |
| 0:59.2 | even those strength and mechanisms aren't going to do the job here. |
| 1:03.7 | Today we're talking about the rise of immigration enforcement economy, |
| 1:07.6 | following the recent release of Deportation, Inc. |
| 1:10.4 | A new video series from Situ and Lawfare. |
| 1:13.7 | So, Gori, I want to start with you. |
| 1:15.9 | The catalyst for this conversation, of course, is the release of a series of videos by |
| 1:21.6 | Lawfare and Citu called Deportation Inc. |
| 1:23.9 | The rise of the immigration enforcement economy. |
| 1:26.4 | So just to kind of set the scene, I was hoping you could give us a bit of an overview of the project, |
| 1:30.3 | its origins, what it's trying to accomplish, and yeah, just to sort of frame the conversation. |
| 1:37.3 | Sure, thank you, Tyler. |
| 1:39.3 | So this project actually began in 2023, and it was to study how the border as a concept has |
| 1:48.8 | started to fan out away from the physical southern border and how it exists digitally, |
... |
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