Rolling Back The Tariffs, Reining In ICE, Blocking The Detention Centers, Forcing Accountability For Epstein Crimes

Need to be very loud folks - so much happening on the Hill now - let's lean in hard today everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morning all. A lot going on today. Let’s get to it:

Rolling Back Trump’s Terrible Tariffs - Need To Make Calls Today - From Punchbowl News, Johnson Faces A Tariff Rebellion:

House Republican leaders are on the brink of losing a key procedural vote today as Speaker Mike Johnson once again asks GOP moderates to give President Donald Trump a pass on tariffs.

Johnson’s leadership team added a provision to the rule being voted on this afternoon that would ban members from bringing up resolutions challenging Trump’s tariff regime. The ban would remain in place until August.

Johnson has done this multiple times during this Congress to protect Trump. But now, moderates have grown sick of it.

Reps. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) both told us they’re likely to vote no, breaking with Johnson and Trump.

“I made it clear that I’m not in favor of that,” said Kiley, who opposed Johnson’s last extension of the blockade.

Bacon said tariffs aren’t good for the economy, manufacturing jobs or the agriculture industry.

“American consumers pay the tariffs and thus it is a big tax,” Bacon added. “I support giving these authorities back to Congress.”

The White House legislative affairs team and the House Republican leadership are working this vote hard. Neither the administration nor Johnson’s leadership team wants to see a flood of tariff disapproval resolutions hit the House floor, as Democrats are planning to do.

But as we’ve seen a number of times in recent weeks, rank-and-file House Republicans are looking out for their own political interests as the midterm elections grow near and aren’t as interested in Trump’s priorities.

With full attendance, it would take only two Republican defections to sink the rule. These are typically party-line votes.

But the vote could be close. Some other House GOP moderates are willing to block tariff votes a while longer, especially with the Supreme Court expected to rule on Trump’s regime soon.

Democrats are also going to offer a procedural motion that would effectively allow the House to strike the tariff language in the rule but maintain the rest of the measure.

The stakes. If Johnson’s effort fails, he’ll immediately have to deal with the fallout.

House Democrats are likely to force a vote on Wednesday on their resolution overturning Trump’s Canada tariffs. That would be a very difficult vote for House Republicans. Johnson told us he’ll need help from the White House if the administration wants to defeat it.

Trump can ultimately veto the resolution if it makes it to his desk. But that sort of rebuke from Congress would still do political damage to Trump.

Democrats’ strategy. House Democrats are preparing to send a wave of tariff votes to the floor.

Rep. Greg Meeks (N.Y.), top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has for months been introducing privileged resolutions to challenge Trump’s trade wars. A measure to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Mexico could be called up as soon as this week.

Another aimed at Brazil tariffs would likely be ready during the last week of February. After that, Democrats would challenge Trump’s global tariffs.

House Democrats are planning to tee up these votes one at a time in the hope it maximizes pressure on wavering Republicans. Meeks is coordinating with Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and factoring in the timeline for forcing Senate votes on any successful resolutions.

Friends, we need to keep making our calls to encourage Congress to rein in ICE, but today please also talk to you House Member - particularly if they are a Republican - about voting against the tariffs. Do something like this - “I oppose Trump’s illegal and destructive tariffs, and I am asking you to vote this week to roll them back.”

While we may not win here this is a fight worth fighting today.

Reining In ICE, Blocking The Detention Centers - DHS is set to run out of money on Friday and as of press time this morning it’s unclear what’s going to happen. The Dems are sticking to their 10 point reform/rein-in plan. Senate Republicans are ignoring the Dems and are moving ahead with another CR to keep DHS/ICE funded for a few more weeks funded while negotiations continue.

The discourse around ICE will be shaped this week by two Congressional oversight hearings - a House hearing today, and a Senate one Thursday. Notably the Administration officials driving ICE’s lawlessness - Vance, Miller, Noem, Bondi - are, shockingly, cowardly, not testifying. It’s three soon to be famous fall guys:

• ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons

• CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow

Also informing the discourse this week is a rash of new reporting about the regime’s manic efforts to expand it’s detention center network. First, I’m going to share excepts of a Bluesky thread from Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a leading immigration expert:

ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps. If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight.

Right now Rikers Island, the physically largest jail in the entire United States, is holding under 7,000 people. ICE's warehouse plans include detention camps which will hold between 8,500-10,000 people in buildings not designed for human habitation.

The largest federal prison in the nation is Fort Dix, which has a rated capacity of 4,600 people. The largest of these warehouse camps may hold more than twice that number of people. The federal government hasn't operated a prison camp inside the United States that large since Japanese Internment.

Purchasing and converting these warehouse detention camps will cost the U.S. government billions of dollars. So far ICE has purchased at least half a dozen warehouses at a cost of $70-$110 million each. It'll cost billions more to refit them into detention camps, and hire staff.

In the last month ICE has bought warehouses in:

- Hagerstown, MD: $102 million

- Surprise, AZ: $70 million

- Hamburg, PA: $87 million

- Tremont, PA: $120 million

- San Antonio, TX: $82 million - El Paso, TX: $123 million

- Social Circle, GA: price unknown

This is unprecedented.

Crucially, many local governments are furious with ICE over these purchases, because they were not consulted or even told. Because they are federal property now, it's taking a commercial property off the tax rolls while likely imposing dramatic additional infrastructure costs.

Courier Newsroom has some great new reporting by Cameron Stephenson on Miller’s detention center expansion: MAP: All 23 industrial warehouses ICE wants to turn into detention ‘death camps’:

Plans are underway to double the detention capacity of the Trump administration’s federal police force by converting massive, industrial warehouses unsuitable for people to live in into detention centers.

COURIER has independently verified the location of 23 mass detention campsites that have been surveyed by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of those locations, leases for five have been secured, while opposition from local communities has killed or stalled deals at five others.

In an apparent attempt to avoid public outcry and scrutiny, ICE has sought to secure these leases in private, ignoring potential health and safety violations and catching local elected officials off guard. In an effort to provide transparency into this process, we have published a searchable map showing each proposed site, its current status, and the level of public response.

All 23 locations can be found here.

Blocking the expansion of these detention centers, and forcing ICE to stay focused on criminals and leave the rest of us alone (more here), has to be one of our highest priorities this year. For here’s what the famous Russian dissident Gary Kasparov shared last night:

Let us once again watch the testimony of a citizen last week in Surprise, Arizona at a local city council hearing on ICE’s plan to create a large detention facility there:

This video, these words, this story needs to be shared with anyone working on this issue. It’s one of the most powerful things I’ve seen in my many years of politics.

As a sign of how the DC media is significantly ratcheting up its coverage of ICE’s lawlessness Politico’s lead story this morning is a very well researched story by Kyle Cheney detailing the extraordinary disregard by DHS/DOJ/ICE of the Constitutionally protected rights of all people here in the US:

Courts across the country have overwhelmingly rejected the Trump administration’s effort to round up thousands of immigrants and lock them up without a chance for bond — even if they have no criminal records and have lived in the United States for years.

But the Trump administration has slow-walked or outright defied judges’ orders demanding the release of people scooped up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at an increasingly rapid clip.

Sometimes, ICE has raced detainees across state lines in ways judges say are designed to thwart legal proceedings. Other times, they’re detaining people for days or weeks after judges have ordered them released. ICE officials have at times ignored other arms of the federal government trying to ensure compliance with court orders. And sometimes the administration has given judges bad or incomplete information.

A POLITICO review of hundreds of cases brought by ICE detainees across the country shows judges increasingly furious and exhausted by the Trump administration’s tactics.

“There has been an undeniable move by the Government in the past month to defy court orders or at least to stretch the legal process to the breaking point in an attempt to deny noncitizens their due process rights,” U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, a Clinton appointee from Minnesota, said in a recent order.

As a result, judges have issued more detailed and prescriptive orders to head off potential loopholes or hair-splitting results. And when all else fails, they threaten to hold administration officials in contempt.

The Epstein Scandal Goes Global, Grows Far More Serious Here In The US - For time and space reasons today I can’t give this the attention it deserves but here’s the bottom line - Trump’s efforts to make the Epstein scandal disappear have failed, spectacularly. Foreign governments are opening up independent investigations. Prominent leaders have begun resigning in disgrace abroad and here at home. Calls for Secretary Lutnick’s resignation for clearly, repeatedly, lying about his relationship with Epstein (his neighbor in NYC!!!), are growing louder. And yesterday, something very significant happened - Members of Congress were given access to the unredacted Epstein files, as required by the new law passed last year. And by the end of the day DOJ was admitting there may indeed be Epstein co-conspirators that must be investigated and potentially charged - and that by implication members of the regime, including FBI Director Kash Patel, had lied to the public and under oath in Congress.

Here’s what Rep. Tom Massie posted last night:

Here’s a new post from Julie Brown, the Miami Herald reporter responsible for putting Epstein’s crimes back in the public eye in 2018. Shit is getting real now:

This is turning out to be a very consequential week on the Hill, so….

Let’s Get To Work People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep contacting your Congressional Reps and demand they rein in ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Big week ahead as DHS funding runs out on Friday!

Winning The Midterms - Support Our Candidates

• Hopium’s Winning The House Campaign (2026) - $132,000 raised, $250,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Donate to all four endorsed House challengers with one click | Learn More | Enjoy our new conversations with Christina Bohannan (IA-01), Mayor Paige Cognetti (PA-08), Jo Mendoza (AZ-06), and Janelle Stelson (PA-10). Now including funds already raised with our friends at FridayAction for a joint event we are doing in May.

• Mary Peltola For Alaska Senate - $30,200 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Volunteer and learn more. Amazing start everyone!

• Winning Ohio - $53,300 raised, $250,000 goal - Our new campaign splits contributions evenly among Sherrod Brown, the Acton/Pepper ticket, and the Ohio Democratic Party. Donate today and help us turn this critical 2026 battleground blue! | Watch my conversation with David Pepper, who does a great overview of the opportunities we have in Ohio this year. Note a generous donor has sent $21,000 worth of Hopium-infused contributions directly to the candidates which are not included in our on-line goal tracker.

• Roy Cooper for NC Senate (2026) - $75,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my conversation with Gov. Cooper and a new, terrific one with NC Dem Party Chair Anderson Clayton

• Jon Ossoff GA Senate (2026) - $123,100 raised, $250,000 goal - Donate | Learn More | Volunteer | Enjoy my inspiring conversation with Senator Ossoff

Expanding The Senate and Electoral College Maps, Winning In Red States and Red Places (2026-2032)

• Hopium’s Audacious Expansion Fund - $364,700 raised, $500,000 goal (new stretch goal) - Join our new campaign to expand our map by investing in the Democratic Parties of Alaska, Florida, Iowa, Maine, and Texas. Many thanks to two generous Hopium community members who have audaciously donated $10,000 to each of our five state parties

Why We Must Invest Early, Now, And Not Wait - In three new essays (here, here, here) I discuss how one of the ways we win the 2026 midterms is by providing early support to our candidates and parties to allow them to staff up, be loud, define the terms of the debate now, before the inevitable onslaught on AI slop, Russian disinfo, and Trumpian lies funded through bribes and corruption wash across the land.

The midterms could be won or lost in these next few months - not in the fall of 2026 - and we need be fighting now with everything we got.

Keep working hard all. The momentum is with us, and we need to keep fighting as hard as we can - Simon