Image Credit: RINGO CHIU / Contributor / Getty Images 
A fresh round of “No Kings” protests will take place across the US today under the slogan “communities not cages,” as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) massively expands its detention capacity for illegals.
Organizers told Axios that key demands include forcing the Trump administration to abandon plans to expand detention capacity and encouraging communities to reject all forms of funding and support for local detention facilities.
“I think for a really long time, people were able to turn the other way, or maybe ignore it,” said Nanci Palacios, Organizing and Membership Director of Detention Watch Network.
She added that the nationwide expansion of detention centers, funded by President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, now makes the injustice of immigration enforcement “hard to ignore.”
ICE is planning to expand detention capacity by over 100,000 through the purchase and conversion of warehouses.
At the end of March, The Wall Street Journal reported that ICE “plans to spend $38.3 billion on a new detention model that includes acquiring warehouses and converting them into detention centers.”
ICE has now bought 11 “mostly new or empty” warehouses in recent months.
There are plans to acquire at least two dozens more warehouses and turn them into detention centers and processing sites.
The Journal also reports that “ICE was told to temporarily slow down its plans while Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s pick to replace Kristi Noem as Department of Homeland Security Secretary, was waiting to be confirmed by the Senate.”
The new centers will be able to hold between 1,500 and 8,500 detainees. Most of the 300 current facilities can only hold hundreds.
Over 150 events are planned for today in 33 states.
Palacios said today’s protests were spurred by the deaths of two anti-ICE activists in Minnesota in January.
In response to a request for comment from Axios, a representative of the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) said, “Where are the protests on behalf of the victims of criminal illegal aliens?”
Anti-Trump protesters are “nowhere to be found when illegal aliens murder or otherwise harm innocent American citizens.”
The previous round of “No Kings” protests turned violent in a number of cities, including Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles and Dallas.
In Los Angeles, protesters waving Palestinian flags attacked DHS agents with cement blocks.
A large crowd gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where riots took place last summer over immigration raids.
DHS agents used tear gas on the crowd, and LAPD officers in riot gear were deployed.
