Article by Nick Penzenstadler: “Laura Berlin watched images of immigration agents rounding up people and flying them to a Latin American prison without due process – and she knew she had to do something.
“That situation really haunted me,” she said.
She asked herself: “Who owned these chartered airliners that were flying the men to a Salvadoran prison? Who owned these detention centers where men were being held along the way?” In short, what companies were taking money from the government to help deport people? Berlin needed to know. Using her background in nonprofit communications, she built an interactive Google Map titled, “Who is Profiting from ICE?” It plots the contractors across the country who work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
Activists found her online database and have used it to organize hundreds of protests across the country against these companies, shaming them into cutting ties with ICE. In one case, an East Coast bank broke with two prominent detention center contractors after account holders – including Jersey City, New Jersey – withdrew more than $350 million. The U.S. government found her website, too – and labeled it a tool for domestic terrorism, according to a secret intelligence bulletin obtained by USA TODAY. It’s the latest example of the Trump administration cracking down on dissent it says could veer into political violence…(More)”.
