Doug MacMillan
@douglasmac.bsky.social
biz + tech investigations @washingtonpost
douglas.macmillan@washpost.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/douglas-macmillan/
douglas.macmillan@washpost.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/douglas-macmillan/
Pinned
Doug MacMillan
@douglasmac.bsky.social
· Sep 16
This month, ICE inspectors toured the giant new Fort Bliss tent camp for migrants, built in under two months.
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
This month, ICE inspectors toured the giant new Fort Bliss tent camp for migrants, built in under two months.
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
September 16, 2025 at 9:26 PM
This month, ICE inspectors toured the giant new Fort Bliss tent camp for migrants, built in under two months.
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
They found 60 violations of federal detention standards, many of which directly impacted the safety of workers and detainees, we reported today in @washingtonpost.com
🧵-->
ICE is sprinting to 100k immigrant detention beds this year, and we got the internal road map. It includes:
✅ More large-scale facilities
✅ More soft-sided tent cities
✅ Record number of family detention beds
Details in story @washingtonpost.com
wapo.st/45hE9fq
🧵 Threading highlights ->
✅ More large-scale facilities
✅ More soft-sided tent cities
✅ Record number of family detention beds
Details in story @washingtonpost.com
wapo.st/45hE9fq
🧵 Threading highlights ->
ICE documents reveal plan to double immigrant detention space this year
Internal documents reveal ICE’s plans to double immigrant detention to more than 100,000 beds, including new detention centers for families.
wapo.st
August 16, 2025 at 1:06 AM
ICE is sprinting to 100k immigrant detention beds this year, and we got the internal road map. It includes:
✅ More large-scale facilities
✅ More soft-sided tent cities
✅ Record number of family detention beds
Details in story @washingtonpost.com
wapo.st/45hE9fq
🧵 Threading highlights ->
✅ More large-scale facilities
✅ More soft-sided tent cities
✅ Record number of family detention beds
Details in story @washingtonpost.com
wapo.st/45hE9fq
🧵 Threading highlights ->
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
We got ICE documents revealing their initial plans to expand detention centers across the US. From @douglasmac.bsky.social, N Kirkpatrick & the data team's Lydia Sidhom: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
ICE documents reveal plan to double immigrant detention space this year
Internal documents reveal ICE’s plans to double immigrant detention to more than 100,000 beds, including new detention centers for families.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 15, 2025 at 3:09 PM
We got ICE documents revealing their initial plans to expand detention centers across the US. From @douglasmac.bsky.social, N Kirkpatrick & the data team's Lydia Sidhom: www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...
My latest on ICE’s business ties:
One of the key figures overseeing ICE’s unprecedented detention surge worked the last 12 years as an executive and consultant for private prison firm Geo Group and got an ethics waiver to work on Geo matters.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
One of the key figures overseeing ICE’s unprecedented detention surge worked the last 12 years as an executive and consultant for private prison firm Geo Group and got an ethics waiver to work on Geo matters.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
The former private prison exec behind ICE’s immigrant detention surge
David Venturella, a veteran of private prison firm Geo Group, joined the Trump administration to help oversee an expansion of the immigrant detention system that’s benefiting his former employer.
www.washingtonpost.com
August 2, 2025 at 12:25 AM
My latest on ICE’s business ties:
One of the key figures overseeing ICE’s unprecedented detention surge worked the last 12 years as an executive and consultant for private prison firm Geo Group and got an ethics waiver to work on Geo matters.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
One of the key figures overseeing ICE’s unprecedented detention surge worked the last 12 years as an executive and consultant for private prison firm Geo Group and got an ethics waiver to work on Geo matters.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
The more I dig into the unfolding immigration crackdown at ICE, the more I find evidence of a business motive at play. My latest story details a new policy to sharply expand the number of immigrants on GPS ankle monitors -- and make $$$ for a Florida private prison conglomerate. wapo.st/3TY4bOf
ICE moves to shackle some 180,000 immigrants with GPS ankle monitors
A June 9 memo directed ICE field officers to significantly expand the number of immigrants under round-the-clock surveillance.
wapo.st
July 26, 2025 at 2:47 AM
The more I dig into the unfolding immigration crackdown at ICE, the more I find evidence of a business motive at play. My latest story details a new policy to sharply expand the number of immigrants on GPS ankle monitors -- and make $$$ for a Florida private prison conglomerate. wapo.st/3TY4bOf
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
Florida man arrested for child predation based on a bad facial recognition match: "This is f***ing nuts"
As has been the case in other wrongful arrests, police showed facial recognition search results to eyewitnesses.
This is a terrible practice, should be banned.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=He8-...
As has been the case in other wrongful arrests, police showed facial recognition search results to eyewitnesses.
This is a terrible practice, should be banned.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=He8-...
Wrong Guy: Florida suspect misidentified by AI facial recognition technology, arrested
YouTube video by Action News Jax (CBS47 & FOX30)
www.youtube.com
July 11, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Florida man arrested for child predation based on a bad facial recognition match: "This is f***ing nuts"
As has been the case in other wrongful arrests, police showed facial recognition search results to eyewitnesses.
This is a terrible practice, should be banned.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=He8-...
As has been the case in other wrongful arrests, police showed facial recognition search results to eyewitnesses.
This is a terrible practice, should be banned.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=He8-...
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on ICE detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined. Story: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
July 4, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on ICE detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined. Story: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on ICE detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined. Story: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
July 4, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Congress allocated $45 billion to spend locking up immigrants over the next four years — more than the government spent on ICE detention during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined. Story: www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
My reporting showed New Orleans police were likely violating a local ordinance by running a live facial recognition surveillance program. The city's response: Legalize this technology.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
New Orleans pushes to legalize police use of ‘facial surveillance’
The city would become first in the United States to formally allow facial recognition as a tool for surveilling residents in real time.
www.washingtonpost.com
June 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
My reporting showed New Orleans police were likely violating a local ordinance by running a live facial recognition surveillance program. The city's response: Legalize this technology.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
Border czar Tom Homan, captain of the "zero tolerance" policy that split migrant parents from their kids, was paid money by the private-prison company that profits off detaining immigrants. Drain the swamp www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social @aaronschaffer.com
Trump’s border czar earned consulting fees from immigrant detention firm
Tom Homan, a top ICE official, earned an undisclosed amount from a division of the GEO Group, one of two companies that operates the majority of the nation’s immigrant detention facilities.
www.washingtonpost.com
May 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Border czar Tom Homan, captain of the "zero tolerance" policy that split migrant parents from their kids, was paid money by the private-prison company that profits off detaining immigrants. Drain the swamp www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social @aaronschaffer.com
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
One of the hard lines on facial recognition technology in the U.S. has been using it to do live searches on real-time cameras. The Washington Post reports that's been happening in New Orleans, however, by a police-adjacent nonprofit called PROJECT NOLA. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras
Following records requests from The Post, officials paused the first known, widespread live facial recognition program used by police in the United States.
www.washingtonpost.com
May 19, 2025 at 6:56 PM
One of the hard lines on facial recognition technology in the U.S. has been using it to do live searches on real-time cameras. The Washington Post reports that's been happening in New Orleans, however, by a police-adjacent nonprofit called PROJECT NOLA. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
New Orleans police used secret network of 200 facial recognition cameras to scan people on public streets and ping nearby cops. The "technology nightmare scenario that we have been worried about" www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social @aaronschaffer.com
Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras
Following records requests from The Post, officials paused the first known, widespread live facial recognition program used by police in the United States.
www.washingtonpost.com
May 19, 2025 at 3:06 PM
New Orleans police used secret network of 200 facial recognition cameras to scan people on public streets and ping nearby cops. The "technology nightmare scenario that we have been worried about" www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social @aaronschaffer.com
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
Immigrants are being forced to sleep on floors at overwhelmed ICE detention centers: “You’re stripped from your humanity" www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social
Immigrants forced to sleep on floors at overwhelmed ICE detention centers
Some immigrant detention centers across the country are over capacity. The administration has asked for emergency contracts to add more facilities.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 20, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Immigrants are being forced to sleep on floors at overwhelmed ICE detention centers: “You’re stripped from your humanity" www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @douglasmac.bsky.social
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
Christopher Gatlin spent 16 months in jail after being charged with assault in St. Louis. Another incident of police relying too heavily on facial recognition tech: www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...
Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches
Confident in unproven facial recognition technology, sometimes investigators skip steps; at least eight Americans have been wrongfully arrested.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Christopher Gatlin spent 16 months in jail after being charged with assault in St. Louis. Another incident of police relying too heavily on facial recognition tech: www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...
Reposted by Doug MacMillan
Biased facial recognition algorithms combined with law enforcement misuse of that technology is a recipe for injustice. It must end. Congress must pass my bill to place a moratorium on government and law enforcement use of these tools. www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...
Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches
Confident in unproven facial recognition technology, sometimes investigators skip steps; at least eight Americans have been wrongfully arrested.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 15, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Biased facial recognition algorithms combined with law enforcement misuse of that technology is a recipe for injustice. It must end. Congress must pass my bill to place a moratorium on government and law enforcement use of these tools. www.washingtonpost.com/business/int...
We made a podcast that delves into the “outrageously dystopian” story of Chris Gatlin, the St. Louis man jailed for 16 months after police connected him to an assault using facial recognition and one very dubious witness statement.
Produced by Emma Talkoff
www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/pos...
Produced by Emma Talkoff
www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/pos...
January 15, 2025 at 2:22 AM
We made a podcast that delves into the “outrageously dystopian” story of Chris Gatlin, the St. Louis man jailed for 16 months after police connected him to an assault using facial recognition and one very dubious witness statement.
Produced by Emma Talkoff
www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/pos...
Produced by Emma Talkoff
www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/pos...
I've spent the past year obsessed with how police are using facial recognition. What I found: Police in 12 states have used these tools to find and arrest suspects when they have no other evidence, leading to wrongful arrests
wapo.st/4fQYlXn
🧵 what I learned from 1,000 docs & dozens of sources ->
wapo.st/4fQYlXn
🧵 what I learned from 1,000 docs & dozens of sources ->
Arrested by AI: Police ignore standards after facial recognition matches
Confident in unproven facial recognition technology, sometimes investigators skip steps; at least eight Americans have been wrongfully arrested.
wapo.st
January 14, 2025 at 2:27 AM
I've spent the past year obsessed with how police are using facial recognition. What I found: Police in 12 states have used these tools to find and arrest suspects when they have no other evidence, leading to wrongful arrests
wapo.st/4fQYlXn
🧵 what I learned from 1,000 docs & dozens of sources ->
wapo.st/4fQYlXn
🧵 what I learned from 1,000 docs & dozens of sources ->