(NewsNation) — Erik Prince, founder of the former security contractor Blackwater, denied proposing a “private army” for mass deportations and instead described a logistics plan to help the Trump administration fulfill its immigration goals.
“This is not some idea of a private army,” Prince said Tuesday on NewsNation’s “On Balance.” “It was a memo generated to describe how to achieve the logistics necessary to move the millions of people that they intend to deport.”
Prince pushed back against a Politico report that described a plan circulated among Trump allies calling for “processing camps” and a private citizen force to carry out deportations.
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He said that the memo outlines how to accomplish mass deportations “in a legal, ethical manner” with necessary due process.
“If people think it’s a huge number, think about how we’ve been invaded. We’ve had millions of people float into the country illegally, actually paying the cartels to smuggle them in,” Prince said.
According to the Politico report, Prince and other contractors submitted a 26-page proposal before Trump’s inauguration that included using private aircraft, “processing camps” on military bases, and deputizing private citizens to make arrests.
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The plan reportedly carries a $25 billion price tag to deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms.
Prince suggested the government would eventually need the private sector to help achieve Trump’s immigration goals, noting that deportation flights “for years, even when other administrations are doing it, were largely contractor managed and operated.”
When asked if the administration had shown interest in the proposal, Prince responded, “no indication so far.”
He said officials are “trying to exhaust all the internal government capability first” but would eventually need private sector assistance to reach their targets.
