‘Like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings’: Donald Trump’s ICE director wants to run deportation like a business

Todd Lyons, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said he would like the agency to be run “like a business” and implement systems similar to Amazon Prime. 

If that reads confusingly, let me spell out the horror. Earlier this week, Lyons was a keynote speaker at the 2025 Border Security Expo in Phoenix. While making his remarks, Lyons expressed plans to treat the Donald Trump administration’s mass deportation policies “like a business,” including through the implementation of a truck system that would round up immigrants for deportation in a vein similar to how Amazon delivers packages around the U.S. “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” the ICE director said.

Donald Trump’s Acting ICE Director compared his vision for mass deportations to Amazon’s delivery system, saying the agency should operate “like Prime, but with human beings.” pic.twitter.com/79jQr6t1bE

— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 9, 2025

He added that he’d like to see the fulfillment of mass deportations “like [Amazon] Prime, but with human beings.” Yep, we’re at that stage of Trump’s presidency. Several other keynote speakers also from the Trump administration echoed Lyons’ desire to fulfill the deportation agenda through business-like manoeuvres, including through dependance on the private sector. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told the crowd — which included many representatives from the military-industrial complex — that “we need to buy more beds [and] we need more airplane flights.”

Homan — who has been embroiled in almost too many controversies to count, including links to Project 2025 and a bizarre feud with… the Pope? —  doubled-down on the administration’s desire to privatize its deportation agenda during his address. “Let the badge and guns do the badge-and-gun stuff. Everything else, let’s contract out,” Homan said. Also during the expo — which brings together military and tech companies to secure or expand federal contracts — both Homan and Lyons bragged about the administration’s recent move to invoke the wartime Alien Enemies Act to facilitate its deportation policies.

“ICE’s fantasy of becoming ‘Amazon Prime for deportations’ exposes the infrastructure behind Trump’s deportation agenda: mass removals powered by Big Tech and data.”

Our National Organizer Cinthya added: “These policies are cruel, reckless and driven by white supremacy and greed…

— Mijente 🐜🐜🐜 (@ConMijente) April 9, 2025

Lyons said the 18th-century law, which became the subject of a Supreme Court battle last month, was “amazing,” while Homan said it “bothers” him when judges or politicians attempt to prevent him from using it. Completing a trio that also reads like my nightmare blunt rotation, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was also in attendance at the event, and she predictably reiterated the administration’s plans to use “new technology” to streamline deportations. Hours before, Noem had led an ICE raid in which three immigrants were arrested, one of whom attempted to kick her with his Croc shoe. 

Cinthya Rodriguez, national organizer for the Latinx advocacy group Mijente, released a statement in the wake of the expo, saying the plans Lyons speaks of “[rely] on the dehumanization of immigrant communities” and that “automat[ing] deportations at Amazon-like speed only furthers that harm.” What’s perhaps the most terrifying part of all of this is the fact that Amazon’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has seemingly made moves to curry favor with the administration, but unlike other billionaires, he at least has some form of discretion. 

Tell me, in other words, that you don’t care about civil and human rights: “We need to get better at treating this like a business,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said, explaining he wants to see a deportation process ‘like (Amazon) Prime, but with human beings.’” https://t.co/y1PsCU21Yg

— Alex Holtzman (@HoltzmanAlex) April 9, 2025

While harrowing, Lyons’ comments perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise. From ASMR-style videos mocking the deportation of immigrants in Seattle to plans to house migrants at the notorious site of Guantanamo Bay, we’ve already borne witness to the aggressive measures taken by the administration to achieve the president’s promise of conducting the “largest deportation operation in history.”