While President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to gut essential nutrition assistance for Americans, the Department of Homeland Security has managed to scrounge up a whopping $10 billion to build immigration detention facilities—and they’re using the U.S. Navy to do it. 

CNN reported Friday that the DHS had launched a new contracting program with the Department of Defense that would make use of the Navy’s Supply Systems Command for construction and maintenance. 

Multiple sources familiar with the program told CNN that the new internment camps would likely be soft-sided tent facilities, similar to the recently revived Alligator Alcatraz, where detainees said they were treated worse than animals, and hundreds of people are still considered missing. 

One source said that the new facilities would be built to house as many as 10,000 detainees each. For comparison, Camp East Montana, the country’s largest immigration detention camp recently built on Fort Bliss, has a capacity of 5,000 beds. Within the first 50 days of its operation, the sprawling camp had already racked up 60 federal code violations, according to a September inspection.

The process of organizing contractors to build the apparatus for the Trump administration’s gargantuan deportation efforts hasn’t been easy. The company behind Camp East Montana had no experience in detention. Sources told CNN that by going through the DOD, the government hopes to accelerate the contracting process. 

In order to take on the government’s load, the Navy quietly amended an existing contracting solicitation mechanism that was previously used to support operations abroad. The Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract was expanded to address the “Territorial Integrity of the United States,” or TITUS. 

A contract notice posted Friday listed several contractors that would receive money through the TITUS program, including Virginia-based 701C, Florida-based KDP Global Enterprises, and Texas-based firms Anovaeon, SGK Global Services, Guardian 6 Solutions, and Worldwide Employee Housing Solutions. The notice said that the total estimated contract maximum for each contractor could be up to $20 trillion, and cites the Defense Support of Civil Authorities support, which authorizes the use of military personnel to assist civil authorities during disasters. 

The new TITUS agreement states that building and staffing contractors for the DOD “may be required to provide infrastructure, staffing, services, and/or supplies necessary to provide safe and secure confinement for aliens in the administrative custody” of DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  

According to CNN, DOD contractors are not permitted to refuse work for ICE. 

This isn’t the first time the Trump administration has tapped the U.S. Navy for support in its immigration crackdown. The government previously asked the U.S. naval base outside of Chicago to house DHS and ICE agents as part of Operation Midway Blitz.

Donald Trump is planning to prosecute another one of his adversaries: Representative Nancy Pelosi.

Attorney General Pam Bondi told Jesse Watters on Fox News Thursday that the Justice Department sent the former House speaker a letter after she suggested that local police could arrest federal agents who violate California law during immigration raids.

“Pelosi got a letter today from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche,” Bondi said, adding that the DOJ told Pelosi and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to “preserve your emails, preserve everything you have on this topic, because if you are telling people to arrest our ICE officers, our federal agents, you cannot do that, you are impeding an investigation.”

“We will charge them if they are violating the law. We will protect our federal agents,” Bondi added. “These people are out there working to keep Californians safe, yet you’ve got Pelosi out there saying to obstruct their investigation. You can’t do it, and we’re going to investigate her now as well as that DA.”

Bondi: Pelosi got a letter today—We told them preserve your emails

if you are telling people to arrest our ICE Officers… you cannot do that, you are impeding an investigation and we will charge them…

We are going to investigate her
pic.twitter.com/os3Yb2d8vz

The threats against Pelosi follow federal indictments against former FBI Director James Comey over allegations of lying to Congress and New York state Attorney General Letitia James for alleged bank fraud, both of which Trump has all but admitted were at his direction.

If Pelosi is charged as a result of a DOJ investigation, Trump would be emboldened to target more of his critics, including other elected officials. Right now, all that stands in the way of his revenge prosecutions are that the cases are shoddy, lack merit, and are led by inexperienced attorneys.

President Trump pulling out of trade talks with Canada has inspired its leaders to continue to rally around the flag rather than capitulate.

“CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY,” Trump wrote Friday morning on Truth Social, after announcing a suspension in talks the night before. “Canada has long cheated on Tariffs, charging our farmers as much as 400%. Now they, and other countries, can’t take advantage of the U.S. any longer. Thank you to the Ronald Reagan Foundation for exposing this FRAUD. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Trump’s rampage was sparked by an ad paid for by the government of Ontario that featured a voiceover of former President Ronald Reagan warning about the dangers of tariffs.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded calmly Friday morning on the tarmac in Ottawa.

“We can’t control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that that policy has fundamentally changed from the policy in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, and it’s a situation where the United States has tariffs against every one of their trading partners,” he told reporters. “What we can control, absolutely, is how we build here at home.… What we can also control, or at least heavily influence, is developing new partnerships and opportunities, including with the economic giants of Asia, which is the focus of this trip.”

Mark Carney: "We can't control the trade policy of the United States. We recognize that policy has fundamentally changed from the policy in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and it's a situation where the US has tariffs against every one of their trading partners ... what we can control…

© New Republic