The instruments, the contracts, and the paper trail of removal in Los Angeles County, kept as a record. Not a news feed.
Most reporting on enforcement is scene reporting, and there is less of it than there was. This page does the other job. It names each instrument the government uses, links the document that creates it, and keeps the list of pieces and public records that cite it. Nothing here is a crowd estimate or a motive. Corrections and documents go to letters@ourrevolution.media.
THE INSTRUMENTS
Detainers. A detainer is a request from ICE to another agency to hold a person and give notice before release. The authority is 8 CFR 287.7, which lets “any authorized immigration officer” issue the form and asks the holding agency to keep custody “for a period not to exceed 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.” The form in use is DHS Form I-247A (3/17), the edition ICE’s own detainer page still links.
287(g) agreements. Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act lets ICE deputize local officers under three models, Jail Enforcement, Task Force, and Warrant Service Officer. As of 27 October 2026 ICE’s 287(g) page counts 2,618 signed agreements covering 38 states and 2 territories, with 182 agencies under the jail model, 571 under the warrant service model, and 1,965 under the task force model; the agency by agency list is a spreadsheet ICE updates. In California the constraint is the California Values Act, Gov. Code 7284 et seq., which bars most local participation. Los Angeles County held a jail agreement from 2005 to 2015, and a 2026 candidate for Sheriff, Lt. Oscar Martinez, has said he wants the jail model back, which would require Sacramento to change the statute first (Daily Bruin, 19 May 2026, secondary).
Expedited removal. On 24 January 2025 DHS published Designating Aliens for Expedited Removal, 90 FR 8139, effective 21 January 2025, extending the procedure to people found more than 100 air miles from a land border, or inside that zone after 14 days, who have been in the country under two years. The District Court for D.C. stayed the designation on 29 August 2025 in Make the Road New York v. Noem, No. 25-cv-190. The D.C. Circuit vacated that stay on 23 June 2026 in No. 25-5320, Judge Walker writing, Judge Rao concurring in the judgment, Judge Wilkins concurring in part and dissenting in part. The designation is in force.
Guard federalization. The June 2025 deployment to Los Angeles ran under 10 U.S.C. 12406. On 23 December 2025 the Supreme Court in Trump v. Illinois, 25A443 read “regular forces” to mean the military, so the statute’s third condition now requires a showing that the military itself could lawfully execute the laws. The mechanism and the litigation record are in the protest mechanism piece once it publishes.
The record in order
DHS extends expedited removal nationwide to people who cannot show two years of continuous presence.
Detention standards and inspections. Facilities operate under the Performance Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS 2011) or the National Detention Standards (NDS 2019). ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight inspects them and publishes reports in the ICE FOIA library, facility by facility and year by year from 2011 through 2026. DHS describes the inspection program in its own ODO overview.
Alternatives to Detention. The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, ankle monitors and check ins, is run by BI Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of The GEO Group, under a contract effective 1 October 2025, one year plus a one year option (GEO release, 30 Sep 2025, company statement). The current task order is 70CDCR25FR0000127, $228.5 million obligated for 30 September 2025 through 29 September 2026; the following year’s order, 70CDCR26FR0000125, began 30 September 2026 with $41.0 million obligated so far.
THE CONTRACTS
The companies paid to detain and monitor are the part of this record that can be read in dollars. The evidence site will carry a watch reason and a USAspending permalink for each of The GEO Group, CoreCivic, BI Incorporated, and Palantir Technologies. Until those rows are live, the recipient profiles on USAspending are the source, and the lag is short: agencies must report contract actions to FPDS within three days and USAspending pulls them daily, so only Defense and Army Corps contracts carry a 90 day delay (USAspending, Data Sources).
THE NUMBERS ICE PUBLISHES ABOUT ITSELF
ICE posts its own detention statistics workbook at ice.gov/detain/detention-management: average daily population, book ins by arresting agency, and the facility list, in a protected spreadsheet that ICE says “may fluctuate until it is locked at the conclusion of the fiscal year.” It counts people in ICE custody. It does not count people on monitors, people in CBP custody, or people removed without detention. Independent readings of the same data and of FOIA releases are reference, not sources: the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley, TRAC at Syracuse, and Vera’s ICE Detention Trends dashboard.
Ask what your county sends ICE. A detainer records request is in preparation; the template and filing notes publish here when the letter is filed.
Send a document. Anything already public, a contract, an inspection report, a docket entry, gets a permalink on this page with credit to whoever sent it. letters@ourrevolution.media.
THE RECORDEvery primary document this page links to
Terms that recur across the record, defined once. Each H3 below is a term; the paragraph under it is the definition the site shows on hover, and the line after it names the primary source.
Administrative Procedure Act
The 1946 statute that sets how federal agencies make rules and how courts review them. It requires notice and public comment for most rules and lets courts set aside agency action that is arbitrary, capricious, or contrary to law.
A meeting employees must attend, on paid time and under threat of discipline, where the employer argues against unionizing. The NLRB held mandatory meetings of this kind unlawful in Amazon.com Services in November 2024, applying the rule to future cases only.
The NLRB's 2023 standard from Cemex Construction Materials Pacific. When a union shows majority support, the employer must recognize it or promptly file for an election, and serious unfair labor practices before the vote lead to a bargaining order instead of a rerun. The Sixth Circuit held the standard invalid on 6 March 2026.
The doctrine from Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984) under which courts deferred to an agency's reasonable reading of an ambiguous statute it administers. The Supreme Court overruled it in Loper Bright in 2024.
A 1996 law that lets Congress overturn a new federal rule with a joint resolution of disapproval, passed by simple majorities on a fast track and signed by the president. A disapproved rule cannot be reissued in substantially the same form without new authority from Congress.
The 1998 law that governs who may serve as an acting officer in a Senate confirmed post and for how long. Actions taken by someone serving outside its limits are generally without legal effect.
Extended debate that blocks a Senate vote. Ending it through cloture takes three fifths of senators, usually 60, so most legislation needs 60 votes to advance. Budget reconciliation bills are exempt.
Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935), which upheld limits on the president's power to fire FTC commissioners and became the legal basis for independent agencies. The Supreme Court overruled it in Trump v. Slaughter on 29 June 2026, except for agencies that exercise no executive power.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which lets a president regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency. In February 2026 the Supreme Court held that it does not authorize tariffs.
When the executive withholds or delays spending money Congress has appropriated. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 allows it only through reported deferrals or through rescission proposals, which lapse unless Congress approves them within 45 days of continuous session.
Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (2024), which overruled Chevron and held that courts must decide for themselves what an ambiguous statute means rather than defer to the agency's reading.
The principle that Congress cannot hand its lawmaking power to another branch. Courts uphold a delegation if the statute supplies an intelligible principle to guide it, a test from J. W. Hampton v. United States (1928) that has struck down only two laws, both in 1935.
A rescission proposal sent to Congress within 45 days of the end of a fiscal year, so the frozen funds expire before Congress has to act. GAO has found the maneuver unlawful under the Impoundment Control Act, most recently on 29 September 2026.
The minimum number of members a board or commission needs in order to act. The NLRB needs three of its five seats filled; the FEC needs four of its six commissioners to vote on enforcement, rules, or advisory opinions.
A budget process that lets Congress pass tax, spending, and debt limit changes with a simple majority in the Senate, outside the filibuster. It starts with instructions in a budget resolution, and the Byrd rule strikes provisions with no budgetary effect.
A layoff of federal employees under OPM rules that rank workers by tenure, veterans' preference, length of service, and performance to decide who is released. Often shortened to RIF.
The president's authority to fire executive officers, and how far Congress can limit it. In Trump v. Slaughter (29 June 2026) the Supreme Court held that for cause protection for FTC commissioners is unconstitutional, so the president can remove members of most independent agencies at will.
An excepted service classification, first created by executive order in 2020, that removes civil service job protections from career employees in policy influencing roles. Revoked in 2021, reinstated by order in January 2025, and made final by OPM rule in 2026 under the name Schedule Policy/Career.
The 2026 name for Schedule F. Career employees placed in it keep their jobs but lose adverse action appeal rights, so they can be removed without the usual civil service process.
Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which lets the president impose an import surcharge of up to 15 percent for up to 150 days to address balance of payments problems. A 10 percent surcharge ran under it from 24 February to 24 July 2026.
Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which lets the president restrict imports the Commerce Department finds threaten national security. It underlies the steel, aluminum, and auto tariffs.
Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which lets the U.S. Trade Representative impose duties or other measures on countries whose trade practices are found unfair or burdensome to U.S. commerce.
A provision of the Tariff Act of 1930 allowing new duties of up to 50 percent on imports from countries found to discriminate against American commerce. It went unused for decades before the 2026 tariff on Canadian goods.
Conduct the National Labor Relations Act forbids to employers or unions, such as threatening, firing, or bribing workers over organizing, or refusing to bargain in good faith. Charges are filed with the NLRB.