Sometimes reality writes its own parodies. When Kristi Noem, the cosplay-loving Secretary of Homeland Security, proudly announced her latest prestige project on Tuesday - a migrant detention center in rural Indiana, christened “ICE Baby’s Speedway Slammer” - it was meant to sound tough, funny, and high-speed. A bit of “America First,” a bit of “Fast & Furious,” and of course a lot of what Trump loves: big words, big gestures, little distance from absurdity.
But barely had the name been released when the first mishap rolled into the pit lane. The Miami Correctional Center, where the whole thing is supposed to be located, is indeed between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, but roughly 60 miles from the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The area has about as much to do with roaring engines and Indy 500 glamour as an abandoned shopping cart has with Formula 1. The track operators were also far from thrilled that their decades-old brand was now being used as branding for an ICE prison spectacle - and they are already threatening legal hassles.
Noem was not deterred. With a pathos that oscillated somewhere between reality TV and a wrestling promo, she proclaimed:
“COMING SOON to Indiana: ICE Baby’s Speedway Slammer. Anyone in our country illegally could soon find themselves here. Avoid arrest and self-deport now through the CBP Home App.”
The project is accompanied by Indiana Governor Mike Braun, who is visibly proud to create 1,000 additional detention beds for ICE - and speaks in interviews of an “innovative partnership,” while outside the gates the crickets are likely chirping. DHS hails the whole thing as a bold strike against “the worst of the worst” - a familiar rhetorical trick that automatically turns every new detention center into a fortress against evil.
Viewed sarcastically, the whole thing is a lesson in Trump-style symbolic politics: a project that is meant to project strength outward but in reality looks like a bad reality show. An ICE prison that sounds like a roller coaster attraction nobody wants to ride. A branding that swings between meme and trademark lawsuit. And a place that, even before the first incarceration, shows that the mix of martial posturing and grotesque entertainment has become the hallmark of this administration.
Whether ICE Baby’s Speedway Slammer will ever achieve the “full throttle” promised by Noem remains doubtful. One thing is certain: the administration has once again managed to turn a serious issue - migration, detention, human rights - into a mixture of satire and creepy carnival. And perhaps somewhere in Washington someone is already humming softly: “ICE, ICE Baby… too cold, too cold.”
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Bei dem Tempo, wie Menschen weggefangen werden, wird leider auch dieses Detention Center schnell gefüllt sein.
Mit stolzer Unterstützung des roten Gouverneurs.
Die Gouverneure der roten Staaten stehen doch Schlange um ein Stück vom Abschiebekuchen abzubekommen.
Sicher kommt bald einer auf die Idee stillgelegte Minen o.ä. zu nutzen.
Es wäre so wichtig, dass die Politiker in Europa es sehen und begreifen, was da passiert.
Neuer Volkssport in der USA, leider.