How Trump’s Deportation Campaign Is Reshaping Small Town America

Like many of the other men on his flight from Miami to Albuquerque, Jose Ventura Rubio never expected to find himself in an ICE jail in rural New Mexico. Ventura Rubio had tried to enter the country in mid-February after flying from Honduras to Miami, thinking his green card was still valid. He didn't realize he had failed to maintain a residency requirement that made him vulnerable to deportation.

Under previous administrations, Ventura Rubio likely could have made his case in immigration court while living and working at home. But President Donald Trump has made detention the default for tens of thousands of people fighting immigration cases.

It's also created a scenario where a growing number of US communities are convinced their financial survival depends on locking up immigrants.

Struggling small towns are at the center of Trump’s mass deportation campaign, spearheaded by ICE. In one rural New Mexico county, officials say they are grappling with the tradeoff presented by the financial benefits and human cost of being an “ICE town.”

Read how much Ventura Rubio's detention and deportation cost here: bloom.bg/49QmBtC

00:00 - 2:15: Introduction
2:15 - 2:57: Life inside a detention center
2:57 - 3:40: 'Where is my father?'
3:40 - 7:16: When small towns become financially reliant on ICE
7:16 - 9:17: Three main ways ICE acquires detention space
9:17 - 12:08: Due process in ICE detention
12:08 - 14:01: Operating a private detention center in rural America
14:01 - 16:00: Reuniting after months of separation
16:00 - 17:36: Financial costs and expansion of detention
17:36 - 19:26: Life after detention
19:26 - 20:31: Responses from private prison operators and credits

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Post from Bloomberg on December 01, 2025

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