Next Comes What

To help keep concentration camps from becoming a permanent feature, figure out who's in the torturers' club and who sells the barbed wire.
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This week's episode looks at what it means to be in the middle stages of a concentration camp regime—which is where the United States is at now. Andrea Pitzer discusses how the shift from performative incidents of violence and terror at the beginning gives way to a more institutionalized and methodical approach, one in which the bureaucracy of the police state becomes more entrenched and self-sustaining. This explains the transition from theatrical street actions, like those of Gregory Bovino, former face of the Border Patrol, to the lower-profile, more methodical approach of (relatively) new DHS head Markwayne Mullin.
 
To consider how this quieter entrenchment and creation of a self-sustaining concentration camp machine unfolds, Andrea looks at who makes the physical means of detention and harm, and how the ideas on how to harm are spread. She focuses on two historical examples--that of Oliver Brothers of Pittsburgh, the company that made barbed wire for the first concentration camps in Cuba, and the evolution of the tactic of la parrilla—"the grill"—a form of electrical torture used under dictatorship in Chile a half-century ago. She then turns to modern appliances that aid in atrocities: electroshock gloves, ankle monitors, and omnipresent surveillance cameras. She notes a new airline contract supporting ICE deportations—possibly involving running detention facilities as well. The episode ends with a look at ways to stall, block, and shut down the torturers' club and the businesses that profit from the deliberate infliction of human misery.
 
00:00 - How Concentration Camp Regimes Actually Form
02:18 - The 1890s U.S. Tech Supply Line Behind Reconcentración
05:14 - The Evolution of Extrajudicial Torture Tactics
07:15 - How Police State Systems Move from Malice to Institutionalization
10:13 - Inside the Modern Private Detention & ICE Expansion
12:12 - High-Tech Surveillance: Flock Cameras & Electric Shock Gear
14:55 - How Local Resistance is Shutting Down Detention Sites
17:42 - Grassroots Tactics: Organizing, Protests, & Documenting Abuse
21:30 - Ending Human Rights Violations at the Local Level

A panoramic review of immigrant persecution under Trump 2.0 so far and a look at where we are now.
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This week, Andrea Pitzer reviews what has happened with the Trump administration's strategic violence against immigrants in the U.S. during the year and a half since his return to office. Andrea mentions three crises that the government hopes people will simply ignore, but which are causing tremendous suffering: cuts to USAID, climate change, and the systemic persecution of immigrants. All three are critical to attend to, but for this episode, she focuses on what has happened since January 2025 on the immigration front.
Running through the Trump administration's attempts to use wartime laws to deport detainees to a gulag in El Salvador, and Stephen Miller's longstanding dream of building tent cities, she shows how those dreams played out in reality. Those deported to El Salvador faced horrific abuse, and two tent-style concentration camp projects led to Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in Texas, and the Everglades camp in Florida that the administration named "Alligator Alcatraz." Both camps have inflicted tremendous suffering on detainees. The Florida camp has been shut down, but Camp East Montana still holds thousands of detainees.
The tent-city project went badly enough that the government has pivoted repeatedly to other approaches, including a short-lived attempt to use Navy overseas contracting architecture to build concentration camps domestically. This also hit roadblocks. Next, Trump and his allies turned to trying to acquire existing warehouses and retrofit them for Amazon-style mass detention in a nationwide network of concentration camps. Local resistance to these sites was fierce and fast. Now the government is pivoting to building new facilities at sites it already owns or controls, which will make pushing back against them a more complicated and challenging effort. Andrea closes the episode with a few thoughts on how people have resisted thus far, and the innovating spirit that has inspired everyday people to find novel and effective means to put sand in the gears of the deportation machine.
00:00 - Introduction & The Three Growing Crises
03:15 - Day One: Early Moves & Expanding ICE Power
06:42 - Tent Cities & The Everglades Detention Infrastructure
10:15 - Federalizing Police & Los Angeles Deployments
13:50 - Border Operations & Community Resistance Tactics
17:30 - Minneapolis Crackdown & Gregory Bovino's Removal
21:10 - Warehouse Expansion: ICE's Strategic Shift
25:05 - Local Movements Stopping Detention Centers
28:40 - The History of Camp Resistance & Lessons Ahead

India and Albania reveal how small protests can transform into big movements, creating possibilities for massive change.   
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This week's Next Comes What considers what can be learned from overseas movements for political change. Andrea Pitzer reviews a few big examples she's discussed before, from Brazil and South Korea to Hungary. But she points out that these countries, which were able to prosecute and or expel corrupt authoritarians from power, are examples of the end stages of political movements. For today's episode, she looks instead at countries that are earlier in the same process. In Albania, she traces political protests and dissatisfaction that rose in the wake of parliamentary elections last year. This generalized anger found a flash point and a symbol with the attempts of Jared Kushner and Invanka Trump this year to develop an environmentally fragile part of the country as a high-end resort. Anger over what appears to be government corruption in opening the region to development has galvanized the people and led to what is being called the Flamingo Revolution: massive protests of a kind not seen in the country in decades.
 
In India, student anger of a lack of jobs and opportunities for the country's young adults exploded after a chief justice described them as cockroaches. Seizing on the nickname, the students formed a Cockroach People's Party. The online movement expanded into physical protests in New Delhi. After police violence against protesters, demonstrations multiplied across India, eventually securing the resignation of the education minister and other promised concessions.
 
Both movements are still in the early stages, but Andrea highlights the examples they offer for everyday people on ways to make a stand against authoritarian government. The episode closes by outlining how a focus on local issues can be a potent force for fighting Trumpism here in the U.S.
 
00:00 – Everyday Resistance & The Limits of Authoritarian Power

03:30 – Defeating ICE: How Local Communities Blocked PA Detention Facilities

06:45 – Dismantling Authoritarian Infrastructure: The Closure of Alligator Alcatraz

10:00 – Albania's Flamingo Revolution: Resisting Jared Kushner's Island Development

15:30 – India's Cockroach Janata Party: Youth Uprising Against Exam Scandals & Modi

20:45 – Student Activism Under Fire: ICE Arrests, Columbia Expulsions & UMich Indictments

25:00 – Symbols of Resistance: Lessons from Serbia's Otpor! Movement

28:30 – Organizing for Long-Term Political Change

Every day, people are showing how we can stop Trump's dismantling of our laws and norms by using both to fight back.
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Our episode this week looks at how the current administration has violated both laws and customs on every front to try to profit from government positions and maximize Trump's power across the board. Andrea Pitzer shows how, from business corruption to ICE detention and the war in Iran, it's nearly impossible to keep track of the ways in which the president is destroying the rule of law and any willingness to respect precedent, in and out of courts. Exploring the use of the rule of law as a weapon against vulnerable and targeted groups since the country's founding, Andrea outlines why the law itself has often been a force for wrong. She nevertheless argues that the history of authoritarianism shows that when existing law is ignored or dismantled through dictatorial power grabs, it consistently exacerbates the crisis faced by vulnerable groups, and others as well.
 
Andrea then goes through recent broad reviews of everything from ICE detention practices to court cases brought by the DOJ. While precedent is being ground down, and the legal system remains under tremendous strain, Andrea points out how the law is still being used successfully to deny Trump and his allies the unlimited power they want. She looks at how communities are establishing and upholding norms as well. From a refusal of a New Jersey town council to do business with a bank partnering with major ICE contractors to a Baltimore rugby team that is standing by its trans players, there are examples everywhere of everyday people finding effective ways to push back against hatred and corruption. 



00:00 — Executive Corruption & The Kazakhstan Mineral Deal
 
02:30 — Alien Terrorist Removal Court & Iran War Casualties
 
06:15 — Human Rights Violations in ICE Youth Detention
 
09:40 — ACLU Report: Law Enforcement Liability & Abuse
 
12:20 — Supreme Court Forces E. Jean Carroll $5.6M Payout
 
14:50 — Federal Judges Block DOJ Voter Roll Seizure
 
17:15 — Failed DOJ Prosecutions: Marimar Martinez & David Hern
 
20:00 — Holding ICE & Stephen Miller Accountable in Court
 
22:10 — Grassroots Victories: Montclair $91M Bank Divestment
 
24:30 — Local Resistance: Communities Protecting Trans Athletes

A new U.S. government call for contractors aims to set up a global network of concentration camps, and your representatives likely don't know about it yet.
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This week's episode of "Next Comes What" looks at a new U.S. government document seeking private contractors for disturbing partnerships. A lot of the "statement of work" describes maintaining an air fleet and permits to support deportation operations, but the document also makes reference to 1,000-bed sites, "detention facilities," and "detainees" in other countries. Andrea Pitzer walks listeners through key passages in the document, first discovered by Charles Davis, and shows how it will lead to the creation of a global network of concentration camps run by the United States.
Recounting the Trumpist use of third-country deportation networks, Andrea explains how the improvised partnerships are hardening into trafficking relationships with other countries, soon to be followed by dedicated detention facilities. She explores the history of prior offshore camps, from Guantanamo to Australian payments to other nations for detention on Manus and Nauru. In each case, the lack of oversight and direct access resulted in tremendous harm. The U.S. appears to be up to a year away from executing this plan, giving everyday people a chance to intervene and stop it. The episode closes with suggestions on how to take action now.
0:00 Introduction: ICE's Secret Plan for Global Detention Camps 2:05 Breaking Down the SAM.gov Contractor Solicitation 5:32 What Are "International Staging Areas" (ISAs)? 8:58 The CECOT Blueprint: How El Salvador Became the Template 14:50 Third Country Detention: 21,000 Deported and Counting 16:04 Lessons from History: Guantanamo, Australia's Nauru, and Operation Condor 19:10 The Privatization Problem: Who Profits from Offshore Detention 22:42 How to Stop This Before It's Too Late