Trump's Deportation Warehouse System Mirrors Concentration Camp History

The government has begun constructing a multibillion-dollar detention camp system, raising concerns about human rights violations.

Published on Feb. 19, 2026

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The United States government has begun construction of a multibillion-dollar detention camp system as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation strategy. The Department of Homeland Security has purchased warehouses to be converted into 8,000-to-10,000-bed detention centers, with plans to acquire more. Experts warn that this system mirrors the early stages of historical concentration camp systems, raising concerns about potential human rights abuses.

Why it matters

The scale and speed of the detention camp construction, as well as the reported conditions within existing facilities, have drawn comparisons to some of the most notorious concentration camp systems in history. This raises serious questions about the administration's motivations and the potential for widespread human rights violations against immigrants and other vulnerable populations.

The details

The Trump administration has already spent about three-quarters of a billion dollars on acquiring over 100 warehouses to be converted into detention centers. Experts note that this pace of construction and the planned capacity of the facilities are unprecedented, even exceeding the early stages of some of the largest historical concentration camp systems. Reports of poor conditions, violence, and deaths within existing immigrant detention centers like Camp East Montana further heighten concerns about the administration's intentions.

  • In the first Trump administration, the White House prioritized optics that signaled it could go after anybody at any time.
  • With Donald Trump's return to office, the administration is now taking a more strategic and deliberate approach to mass deportation.
  • The government has already spent about three-quarters of a billion dollars on acquiring over 100 warehouses for detention centers.
  • Even before his election, Trump was talking about a mass deportation campaign targeting up to 20 million people in the U.S. illegally.
  • We are already seeing conditions in these camps that rival early Nazi concentration camps, with illness, disease, and limited access to medical care.

The players

Stephen Miller

A senior advisor to President Trump and the architect of the administration's mass deportation strategy.

Todd Lyons

The acting ICE Director who was heard saying he wanted to run deportations like a business, "like Amazon Prime, but with human beings."

Dahlia Lithwick

A journalist who discussed the detention camp system with Andrea Pitzer on the Amicus podcast.

Andrea Pitzer

A journalist and the author of several books, including "One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps."

Margarete Buber-Neumann

A detainee who was held in both the Soviet gulag system and the Nazi concentration camp system, and wrote about the experience in her memoir "Under Two Dictators."

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What they’re saying

“We are witnessing the construction of a system for just warehousing people systematically. How much of what we are seeing playing out right now is just the tip of the iceberg for what is imagined?”

— Andrea Pitzer, Journalist and author (Slate)

“If they end up with all these warehouses, what automatically follows from that is you have transit camps and you have hub camps and you have whole communities whose identities become bound up with these warehouses.”

— Andrea Pitzer, Journalist and author (Slate)

“Everybody needs to face accountability. Reforms are good, for sure, but if you're focused on them, the correct response to Dachau was not better training for the guards.”

— Andrea Pitzer, Journalist and author (Slate)

What’s next

Experts and advocates are calling for immediate action to shut down the expansion of the detention camp system and hold those responsible accountable for any human rights abuses that may occur.

The takeaway

The Trump administration's rapid construction of a massive detention camp system, modeled on historical concentration camp models, represents a deeply troubling escalation of its anti-immigrant agenda and a grave threat to civil liberties and human rights in the United States.