The Big Takeover: inside secret plans to create a nation-wide militarized law enforcement system under Trump's command
For months, a Project 2025 subgroup drafted plans to place domestic law enforcement under Trump's thumb. We have their files.
Since President Donald Trump's inauguration in January, his administration has ruthlessly prosecuted promised mass deportations. He has sent deportees to Guantanamo Bay and a “terrorist” prison in El Salvador. He has placed control of the southern border in the hands of the military. And, despite promising to focus on hardened criminals, the administration has widened its immigrant dragnet by targeting documented and undocumented immigrants alike.
Trump has done much of this in defiance of the judiciary, while claiming an amount of executive power previously unseen in American history.
To the casual observer, this administration's approach may appear haphazard or incoherent. However, these anti-immigrant measures echo a plan that was meticulously crafted, out of public view, over at least the year preceding this Trump presidency.
The purpose of that plan is to drastically restructure domestic law enforcement— nationwide— under the command of the president. This restructuring will ensure that Trump has the machinery in place to target immigrants and crack down on those who oppose him.
The Big Takeover: "Border Security Workgroup" documents detail plans to integrate all levels of law enforcement under Trump's command
Cochise Regional News and Phoenix New Times (CRN/New Times) have obtained a trove of documents laying out these plans. The documents were crafted by a subgroup of Project 2025 and contain several timelines for these actions, which are set to unfold throughout this year.
The contents of these documents and the identities of their authors have— until now— been unknown to the American public.
Project 2025 was an effort by several far-right think tanks to craft a policy playbook for a second Trump presidency. Per materials we've obtained, documents in our possession were created by a subgroup of the larger Project 2025 effort called the "Border Security Workgroup." This subgroup was tasked with crafting immigrant mass deportation plans, along with other law enforcement and national security policy.
Though candidate Trump repeatedly denied any involvement with Project 2025 during the election cycle, documents obtained by CRN/New Times strongly suggest that the group worked closely with Trump and his team— right through the election and up the White House steps.
It is unclear whether the set of Project 2025 documents we have constitute the group's final policy proposals, or whether Trump accepted these policies. It is clear, however, that many of the agenda items laid out in these internal Project 2025 documents have come to pass during the early months of this Trump presidency.
We have also seen items, which seem to have been crafted largely for propagandistic purposes, come to pass. This has included the administration's demonization of some immigrant groups— Venezuelans accused of being members of Tren de Aragua, in particular— as 'terrorist' threats. The administration has deported many of these so-called terrorists on the basis of flimsy evidence and without due process of law.
Internal Project 2025 Border Security Workgroup documents obtained by CRN/New Times clearly state that targeting these alleged immigrant 'terrorists' has been a vital part of a proposed communications strategy, intended to galvanize political support for the implementation of a broader plan.
The core objective of that plan is a dramatic restructuring and militarization of law enforcement, nationwide, under the command of President Trump.
In coming months, CRN/New Times will deliver reporting under the header "The Big Takeover," revealing the contents of these documents, their implications for the country, and the identities of their authors. This article is the first in that series of investigative reporting.
Project 2025 and Trump
Project 2025 is the name of an effort led by right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation. The effort included input from a coalition of various right-wing public policy foundations and individual contributors.
In April 2023, the group published a 922-page policy handbook titled "2025 Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise." In essence, the handbook laid out plans to reshape the federal government under a second Trump administration around two pillars.
One was the obscure "unitary executive" legal theory, which essentially consolidates executive power in the hands of the president. Critics of "unitary executive" theory argue that it is unconstitutional and essentially reframes the presidency as something akin to a dictatorship or monarchy.
The second pillar is hard-line Christian fundamentalism.
The Heritage Foundation was co-founded in 1973 by right-wing political luminary and Christian nationalist Paul Weyrich. And, according to Border Security Workgroup materials we've obtained, many involved in crafting these specific law enforcement and mass deportation plans also have substantial ties to Christian nationalists— among other far-right extremists.
Border Security Workgroup documents obtained by CRN/New Times demonstrate that Project 2025 continued working, well beyond the 2023 publication of the "Mandate for Leadership" tome, to craft policy for a hoped-for second Trump presidency.
While that work was occurring, then-candidate Trump repeatedly denied any knowledge of, or relationship to, Project 2025.
In response to this Trump claim, critics noted that several publicly-known contributors to the project had served in the first Trump presidential administration. Several have since been appointed to his current administration.
Furthermore, documents we've obtained demonstrate that about one third of the individuals involved in crafting these specific Project 2025 law enforcement and mass deportation plans had also served in some capacity under the first Trump administration.
According to document metadata, contributors to the Border Security Workgroup— whose identities will be explored in subsequent reporting in this series— worked to craft these proposals between May and September 2024, all while Trump was denying any involvement with Project 2025.
The authors of these documents clearly expected to work in tandem with the campaign and subsequent administration. They specifically discuss intentions to "receive guidance and input from the Presidential candidate and other key members of the executive team," through the latter half of 2024, into the presidential transition period following the election, and well into the first year of the administration.
It is not clear from documentation we have obtained whether the Border Security Workgroup policy proposals found purchase with Trump. But, if there has been coordination between the administration and the authors, it would hardly be surprising— as several of the policy proposals contained in the documents have already been executed.
These have included things like the widespread revocation of immigrant parole programs and the revocation of status for many immigrants in the U.S. legally. The administration has also sent immigrants to Guantanamo Bay and placed control of the U.S./Mexico border in the hands of the military. And, Trump has directed the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to help identify immigrants for deportation— breaking with long-held federal norms, while clearly embracing draconian tactics laid out by the Border Security Workgroup.
More disturbing, however, are those items which have not yet fully fleshed out.
Domestic law enforcement realignment and militarization
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, aspects of all levels of American law enforcement were integrated for the ostensible purpose of preventing further terrorist attacks. Over time, that infrastructure was applied to a more inclusive "all hazards" detection and mitigation objective. This has had civil liberties consequences, with such law enforcement personnel monitoring and surveilling activists and critics of law enforcement. [Read more about this here and here.]
One of the most concerning proposals in the Border Security Workgroup documents would create a similar structure, but ostensibly for identifying and deporting immigrants. This proposed system would be under the direct command of Donald Trump— a man who has demonstrated disregard for things like due process of law, and who has stated desire for retribution against those he perceives to be political enemies.
According to documents, the Border Security Workgroup recommendations revolved around one central "line of operation": to dramatically restructure and militarize domestic law enforcement through the course of this year.
If enacted, this proposal would constitute the most drastic restructuring of American law enforcement since 9/11.
The post-9/11 restructuring created a system of law enforcement and intelligence "fusion centers" nationwide. It also created entities like the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which assumed command of such entities as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Fusion centers, as they exist today, integrate the efforts of state and local law enforcement with DHS and other federal agencies like the FBI. While the current fusion center system does investigate and interdict crimes committed by transnational criminal organizations such as Tren de Aragua, local law enforcement (for the most part) does not engage in matters of federal immigration law enforcement.
Internal Project 2025 documents obtained by CRN/New Times propose creating a wholly new fusion center-style system.
This new law enforcement infrastructure, according to documents, would incorporate four tiers of command: Regional Command (i.e. local sheriffs, municipal police, state troopers, game wardens, etc.), State Command (which would oversee and support all "regional command" units within each state), District Command (which would oversee, support, and coordinate actions of "state command" units within geographical districts throughout the nation), and Headquarters Command (which would direct it all).
To facilitate the administration’s mass deportation goals, several proposals in the Border Security Workgroup materials would expand use of programs that extend federal immigration enforcement powers to local law enforcement officers. For example, documents contemplate waiving 287(g) training requirements for sheriff’s deputies and municipal police working in “regional command” units. The 287(g) program allows local law enforcement to work in concert with ICE in such matters as immigration raids.
Per the internal Project 2025 documents, Headquarters Command is to be directed by a Commander of Domestic Security Operations, who will be "appointed by the President of the United States and take direction on how to conduct operations in a manner decided by the President."
Headquarters Command would also contain a "multi-jurisdictional law enforcement liaison group," which would consist of representatives from all levels of the integrated law enforcement command structure — from county sheriffs to the FBI, the DHS, the IRS and others.
Headquarters Command would also be the level at which the military melds with local law enforcement to provide operational support, according to the documents.
Where military support for domestic law enforcement is concerned, internal Project 2025 Border Security Workgroup documents obtained by CRN/New Times discuss several potential workarounds to laws that prohibit most military engagement in matters of domestic law enforcement.
Furthermore, the documents recommended mobilization of up to one million troops to aid in proposed domestic security operations, and identified specific military air bases to be used for rapid deportation flights.
Documents also show the group crafted presidential actions directing military support to civilian law enforcement— and contemplated invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow for active military participation in domestic law enforcement.
To be clear, these recommendations may well have teeth. CRN/New Times' review of these documents and associated metadata shows that at least half of those involved in the Project 2025 Border Security Workgroup were career high-level military and intelligence personnel.
The documents lay out timelines and several "lines of operation" for accomplishing this domestic law enforcement restructuring by the end of this year.
Propaganda: immigrants as 'terrorists'
Already this year, Americans have watched the spectacle of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. The administration has posted videos of shackled immigrants being loaded onto deportation flights and photo ops at El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison, where the Trump administration has sent supposed Venezuelan “terrorists” (without due process of law).
These actions fit a proposed communications strategy contained in the Border Security Workgroup documents obtained by CRN/New Times. The intent of this strategy: to bolster political support and gain stakeholder buy-in for the central effort to overhaul and militarize domestic law enforcement.
A "strategic communications" timeline in the documents suggests propaganda for selling the country on the law enforcement restructuring and militarization plan. A section detailing “Pre-Election” communications strategy reads:
"Our law enforcement agencies can help save so many victims — Americans and the illegal aliens held captive, indentured, and trafficked here. We must find and capture any potential terrorists or malign actors as a priority.”
Documents explicitly state that the target “audience” for this messaging was the “American public.”
Recommended communications for the pre-inauguration period encouraged “interagency cooperation and assistance” among all levels of law enforcement and included the following messaging intended for the “American public” and “opposition politicians”:
“Our fine border patrol agents and immigration officials can do this job and we will be asking Congress to provide them with the necessary tools and resources. Together, we can stop the trafficking, the misery, and the murder.”
Last, the messaging strategy timeline carries us through the first 100 days of the Trump presidency by driving home the “terrorist threat”:
"Coordination, coordination, coordination. We ask all state and local authorities to help the U.S. find the dangerous terrorists and remove criminals from preying on the public. (Audience: American public, state, and local politicians)." [Parentheses original.]
Counter-intelligence and the "insider threat"
Over time, the post-9/11 fusion center system turned on the American people in ways the general public did not anticipate. By contrast, the new militarized law enforcement structure contemplated in the Project 2025 Border Security Workgroup documents has civil rights ramifications built into its DNA.
A significant portion of the documents discuss domestic counter-intelligence. The draft proposals contain recommendations to investigate, prosecute and even seize the assets of non-governmental organizations, along with state, municipal and federal agencies that provide services to immigrants and refugees.
Documents describe some NGOs and specific government agencies as potential targets because they are perceived to oppose the priorities of the president, and because they are "accomplices to immigration crime."
"An insider threat to this strategy can be expected that works with nation-state, transnational and non-governmental entities to subvert the President's plan," the documents state further. "An active counter-intelligence effort must be organized, integrated across all levels, and actively conducted to identify and prosecute any individuals working for and providing classified or operationally sensitive information on border security plans and activities." [sic]
“Operationally sensitive information” might very well describe the contents of this reporting. Indeed, such directives could be used to target reporters, press outlets, lawyers, activists and concerned citizens who publish or post information relating to immigration raids — or who are otherwise seen to be working to "subvert the President's plan."
Laying the groundwork
Through the first 100 days of his term, Trump issued a number of executive orders that seem intent on creating the nation-wide militarized law enforcement realignment contemplated in Project 2025 Border Security Workgroup documents obtained by CRN/New Times.
These orders have caught the eye of Jessica Pishko, an attorney and journalist who has written a book on the far-right radicalization of American law enforcement. Though Pishko is not privy to the documents obtained by CRN/New Times, she has noticed an emergent pattern in Trump’s executive orders.
That pattern is one in which a supreme leader works to curry favor and loyalty among law enforcement, while simultaneously positioning them as potential tools of authoritarianism.
"I think that what Trump and his administration imagine is something like the unitary executive all the way down — directing what the priorities are for all law enforcement personnel,” she told CRN/New Times. “It's not really about enforcing the 'law,' but ensuring that the specific directives of the president are carried out.”
Among other things, Trump’s executive orders have placed control of the southern border in the hands of the U.S. Department of Defense and called for "provision of military and national security assets" to local law enforcement agencies.
Trump has also used his executive orders to decry a "lawless insurrection against the supremacy of federal law," which he says is underway among state and local officials whom the administration views as being insufficiently compliant with its mass deportation plans. Furthermore, through executive order Trump has called on the heads of DHS and DOD to craft recommendations on whether he should invoke the Insurrection Act.
Other provisions of these executive orders have called for the unification of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies through the creation of "Homeland Security Task Forces" (HSTFs) in all states, unified under one "operational command center."
Strongly echoing recommendations contained in the documents we’ve obtained, Trump has ordered these fusion-center-like HSTFs to pursue his immigrant mass deportation agenda, and to also engage in enforcement actions against state and local officials whom the administration views as working contrary to their objectives.
These executive orders have also granted greater immunities, legal protections, and resources (including military assets) to state and local law enforcement agencies and officers. The executive orders also called for enhanced sentences for those convicted of "crimes against law enforcement officers.”
Taking a step back and looking at Trump’s executive orders, Pishko sees a troubling scenario emerging— namely, the creation of an apparatus that could be redirected to punish targets of Trump’s choosing.
"The biggest concern I have is that if [Trump] decides to bring all of local law enforcement under his purview and use it to conduct mass deportations and/or mass surveillance of certain groups of people, that it would be very easy to do that — he would have a lot of manpower," Pishko said. "Right now, it's immigrants. It could change [...] things could switch pretty quickly to other groups. It could switch to protestors. It could switch to academics. It could switch to journalists."
Project 2025 Border Security Workgroup documents obtained by CRN/New Times detail the creation of this new militarized law enforcement structure — nationwide — through the course of this year. Though crafted outside of the democratic process, without input from the public or their representatives, recommendations contained in these documents are seemingly becoming reality with each passing week.
If this pattern hold true, more developments— many which may have grave civil liberties consequences— are to come.
Beau Hodai, Cochise Regional News and Phoenix New Times-- May 15, 2025
This article is the first in an investigative series, "The Big Takeover," exploring the contents, implications and authors of heretofore unreported Project 2025 documents obtained by Cochise Regional News and Phoenix New Times.
This joint CRN/New Times reporting is part of Phoenix New Times' Arizona Watchdog Project, which receives support from the Trace Foundation.
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