Contrary to the presidential executive orders shutting down a number of government departments and reducing the number of government employees, it seems that every week an acronym or an initialism pops up in the course of reporting on a new government entity. An acronym and an initialism were revealed in a Feb. 12 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement document: DRI and ERO, the Detention Reengineering Initiative and Enforcement and Removal Operations.
DRI and ERO have been activated by ICE, establishing a new detention model to be fully operational by Nov. 30, the end of FY26. It is an effort to meet the growing demand for bed space in immigrant detention centers and to streamline the detention and removal process. The goal is to increase bed capacity to 92,600, requiring 12,000 new law enforcement officers, according to an ICE document.
This model will include eight large-scale detention centers and 16 processing sites. This plan includes the renovation of a large warehouse in Merrimack to house detained immigrants. Common Dreams reports that the administration plans to spend $38.3 billion on this mass detention plan.
The Feb. 16 Monitor reported that Massachusetts’ Governor Maura Healey has issued a statement saying, “We should be opposing ICE’s tactics … to build new human warehouses. … I oppose this in the strongest possible terms.” Reuters reports that under Trump, the number of people in ICE detention increased by about 75% from when Trump took office last year.
It is obvious that these “new human warehouses” are permanent structures designed to be used for many years to come to detain the thousands of people being picked up and processed for deportation. ICE will keep the detention centers full by seeking out as many presupposed immigrants as possible, for example, by patrolling the streets, watching schools and workplaces and forcing entry into vehicles and homes.
The appearance of DRI and ERO serve as an alert to citizens that there is a plan to continue into the foreseeable future the enforcement and renewal operations citizens have been observing, for example, in Milwaukee, Chicago, Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine. This is the plan, even as judges across the country have ruled more than 4,400 times since the start of October that ICE has illegally detained immigrants. Gov. Healey is absolutely right to demand opposition to the expansion of ICE activities through DRI and ERO. In spite of the White House’s insistence that these instruments of Homeland Security are the norm for the country — threats, bullying, abuse, deadly force, and defying the courts are not the American way nor the way of a democracy.
Also, the White House’s rationale that immigrants are not deserving of being welcomed into the country, is out of touch with reality. Pew Research reports, “As of 2023, 46% of immigrants were naturalized U.S. citizens. Nearly a quarter (23%) were lawful permanent residents … and another 4% were lawful temporary residents who were permitted to stay in the U.S. for a limited period of time, usually for work or study.”
These people are not the problem for the country. The problems concerning immigration include ICE initiatives like DRI and ERO. The plans must not become permanent norms that devalue the immigrants in our midst and risk the freedom of every citizen.
Citizens must continue to show resistance against the oppressive and sometimes deadly activity of ICE against citizens and immigrants. And U.S. Congress must take action to defund and deactivate DRI and ERO. Then it may be discovered that the need for DRI will dry up, and Enforcement and Removal Operations will become unnecessary.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.