One missed form in 2015—submitted late as the couple grieved a stillbirth—is now grounds for their family destruction in America. Immigration officials encouraged Kasper Eriksen’s naturalisation for years, never mentioning any missing documents until they sprung a trap at his citizenship ceremony and put him in shackles.

Two hours into what Eriksen believed would be his final immigration appointment after fifteen years of meetings—the moment he would formally become an American citizen—a U.S. Marshal entered the Memphis office to wrap his arms and legs in chains.

The hard working welder, a faithful father of four with another child due in August, instantly was transformed by ICE from a prospective citizen to “detainee” before he could comprehend what was happening. His wife left their meeting alone. Their children still ask when daddy can come home from “the most horrible hotel they could have ever imagined.”

Why? This scene illuminates something terrifyingly familiar: the resurrection of American paramilitary violence for profit.

Where Andrew Jackson’s armed agents enforced ethnic cleansing and slavery expansion, and the KKK used night raids to terrorize families into economic submission, ICE now operates as a corporate-funded paramilitary force using identical tactics. We are witnessing the rise of the Corporate KKK.

The Paramilitary Continuity

Jackson’s military enforcers ignored Supreme Court rulings and viciously undermined American Native rights while using federal surveillance and armed violence to block abolition efforts. The KKK, brought back into force under President Wilson, continued this tradition through night raids, family separation, and systematic terror to maintain white economic dominance. ICE represents the latest iteration: armed agents conducting dawn raids, separating families at gunpoint, operating militarized detention camps—all to feed corporate profit streams.

The through-line is unmistakable: federal power deployed to separate families for economic gain. Jackson’s soldiers stormed Native homes at dinner time to drag families from their homes at gunpoint into concentration camps and then death marches. The methods have evolved—from dawn military raids and extralegal terror, to bureaucratic detention during legal process—but the result remains constant.

Jackson’s “gag rule” prevented Congress from discussing abolition while his surveillance apparatus monitored and suppressed resistance. The KKK operated with local law enforcement complicity to crush organizing against white supremacy. ICE operates with federal authority to suppress humanitarian concerns while maximizing detention for corporate benefit.

The timing of Eriksen’s detention reveals this paramilitary nature. Immigration officials told him that under the previous administration, his situation “would have probably been different.” This wasn’t bureaucratic procedure—it was armed enforcement following new orders to maximize corporate profits through family separation.

The Militarization of Corporate Profit

Follow the money. GEO Group maxed out Trump campaign contributions before his victory sent their stock up 50%. Congressional quotas guarantee 34,000 filled detention beds daily—creating a production target that transforms enforcement into a profit-driven quota system. CoreCivic, GEO’s main competitor, saw similar stock surges. Together they control 73% of immigration detention beds. When Trump promised mass deportations, Wall Street understood: family separation pays dividends.

This isn’t bureaucracy; it’s militarized capitalism. Armed agents must fill beds to meet corporate contracts, turning family separation into a production quota enforced at gunpoint.

Research confirms the paramilitary logic. Detained immigrants without criminal records are growing three times faster than those with convictions—because law-abiding migrants attending scheduled appointments are easier military targets. ICE acknowledges arresting whoever is “easiest to snatch up.” This is textbook paramilitary strategy: terrorize the compliant to maximize operational efficiency.

Eriksen and 48,000 others aren’t criminals—they’re inventory in a corporate campaign that requires constant armed replenishment.

The Terror Apparatus

ICE’s danger lies not in its brutality—which matches historical precedents—but in its bureaucratic camouflage. Agents process paperwork and follow protocols while feeding a detention system designed to maximize corporate revenue. The moral diffusion is complete: individual compliance enables systematic cruelty.

The immigration officials who detained Eriksen expressed “remorse” while calling in armed federal agents. The case manager spent two hours before concluding his “hands were tied”—then watched U.S. Marshals chain a father in front of his pregnant wife. This isn’t bureaucratic procedure; it’s paramilitary terror with a customer service veneer. Officials can sleep at night because they followed procedure. Shareholders profit because the procedure maximizes detention. Only the families suffer the full weight of what this system actually does.

Such systematized terror makes resistance exponentially more difficult. Jackson’s opponents could target military policies. KKK opponents could identify specific terror cells. ICE operates through dispersed paramilitary networks funded by corporate contracts—making the violence both legally protected and financially incentivized.

Innovation in Legal Paramilitarism

Jackson’s removals required military mobilization and territorial conquest. KKK terror required extralegal violence and local complicity. ICE represents the perfection of both: federally sanctioned paramilitary operations serving private corporate interests with full legal protection.

We have achieved something historically rooted in dictatorships: legally sanctioned paramilitary terror as a scalable business model. The sophistication is terrifying—a seamless integration where federal authority provides legal cover, private profits provide operational incentives, and stock markets reward the efficiency of family destruction.

Corporate KKK

We have created something historically familiar yet uniquely dangerous: terror with quarterly earnings. Private contractors profit from public cruelty while federal authority provides legal cover. It’s the KKK with corporate lawyers and congressional appropriations.

The armed agents who destroyed the Eriksen family will continue their terror campaigns until we eliminate both the paramilitary structure and the corporate profit motive. This requires not just ending private detention contracts, but recognizing that ICE operates as an illegal paramilitary organization serving private interests under federal cover.

Jackson’s paramilitary campaigns eventually met organized resistance that exploded into Civil War. KKK terror faced armed self-defense and federal intervention during Reconstruction. Our current Corporate KKK faces only market constraints and legal protection. The moral stakes could not be higher: we are perfecting techniques of legally sanctioned paramilitary terror. When Eriksen’s U.S. Marshal wrapped those chains around his arms, shareholders measured the moment with quarterly projections.

Moral Clarity

Speak truth about a paramilitary organization masquerading as immigration enforcement. Call corporate terror by its name when it’s dressed in federal uniforms rather than white hoods. The time for legal politeness has passed.

Eriksen’s children ask when daddy comes home from his “horrible hotel” because they’re learning in America that corporate profits override family unity or safety. Until we recognize detention quotas as what they are—a business model built on human separation—more families will discover that citizenship ceremonies can become arrest warrants, and justice can be a commodity sold to the highest bidder. The machinery is profitable, and apparently legal. That’s exactly what makes it so dangerous, and exactly why it must be dismantled before cruelty with inhumane “efficiency” becomes the only measure of justice left in America.