The Price Tag of Tyranny
What ICE is costing the American taxpayer in blood and treasure—and how organized people can fight back.
Listen to this Report
Narrated by Dr. Shirley J. Droid
AI Editorial Assistant • ~8 minutes
They want you to believe this is “security.” It's not.
It's a government-funded terror campaign—raids, detention, family separation, due process stripped down to a suggestion—sold to the public as “law and order” while the bill gets mailed to you.
This is what ICE is costing the American taxpayer in blood and treasure: not just dollars spent, but lives destabilized, communities traumatized, workplaces and schools turned into hunting grounds, and an entire country trained to accept cruelty as normal.
The “Treasure”: The Numbers They Don't Want You to Feel
ICE is not some small line item. It's a machine—expensive by design, profitable by structure, and politically useful because fear is a great distraction.
Hard Markers:
- •ICE spent about $9.99 billion in FY 2024
- •Major funding pushes include $170 billion over four years for immigration and border enforcement
- •Detention expansion: $45 billion over four years ($11.25 billion/year)
- •Daily detention cost: $187.48 per adult “per bed” per day
And don't miss the architecture of the scam: much of this system is built on contracts—private detention, transport, surveillance, logistics. That means the suffering isn't a “side effect.” It's a revenue model. The Brennan Center calls it what it is: a “deportation-industrial complex.”
The “Blood”: The Human Cost
“Blood” doesn't have to mean gore to be real. It means:
Parents taken and kids left behind
Workers disappearing, families losing rent money overnight
People too afraid to report crimes or go to court
Communities forced into silence
This is not “public safety.” It's state power used as intimidation—and the current administration is leaning into it because fear is a governing strategy when you don't want accountability.
Let's Name the Tyranny Plainly
A government that:
- • massively expands detention,
- • normalizes raids,
- • shrinks due process,
- • and turns neighbors into targets
...is not defending liberty. It is practicing tyranny with a flag draped over it.
And tyrannies rely on one thing from the public: compliance. So we stop complying.
What We Do Now: Disciplined, Nonviolent, Economically Powerful Resistance
1) Boycott the Machine
If major corporations want your dollars while they stay silent (or profit) as communities are terrorized, they are choosing a side. Your move: a targeted consumer strike.
- ✓ Cancel what you can. Reduce what you can't.
- ✓ Shift spending to local, Black-owned, Latino-owned, immigrant-owned businesses
- ✓ Move money to credit unions and community banks
- ✓ Build mutual aid into your budget: even $10–$25/month pooled locally is power
This isn't just morality. It's strategy. Make them feel it.
2) Athletes and Celebrities: Follow Kaepernick—Take a Knee
Pro athletes have platforms that move markets. If they can wear a patch for a sponsor, they can wear the truth for the people. Their silence is deafening.
Silence is collaboration—especially when you're being paid millions inside systems built on the labor and culture of the very communities being targeted!
3) Pressure Your Representatives
ICE doesn't run on vibes. It runs on appropriations. Your elected officials have leverage if they choose to use it.
Call Script:
“I'm a constituent. I oppose expanded detention and deportation funding. I want oversight, transparency, and budget cuts to programs that violate civil rights. I want funding redirected to housing, healthcare, education, and legal services. What is the Representative/Senator doing—specifically—this month?”
Then do it again next week. Democracy is not a one-call activity. It's sustained pressure.
4) Tax Refund Season: Protect Your Refund
Refund season is when working people get temporary breathing room. Predatory systems know that—and they hunt your refund.
Economic justice isn't only about protest. It's also about keeping our households stable while we fight.
Power to the People
They want you isolated. They want you tired. They want you to think resistance is pointless.
But history is clear: organized people beat organized money—when we stop pretending neutrality is an option.
Boycott. Shop small. Build community wealth. Protect your refund. Pressure your reps. Demand civil rights like your life depends on it—because for too many people, it does.
Power to the people.
-cb
A Note About Our Editorial Process
This newsletter is crafted with the help of Dr. Shirley J. Droid, our Deep Agent research assistant (named after physicist Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson—because if you're going to use AI, honor the legends!). As your self-appointed Head of AI Editorials, I use Dr. Shirley J. Droid to research, draft, and format these posts. But the analysis, perspective, and commitment to economic justice? That's 100% human, 100% me. -cb
✊🏾Power to the people.
