How ICE skirts public input on detention centers

Storms, floods and fires are ever more extreme. And yet the Federal Emergency Management Agency is fighting for its life. I've never been a big fan of FEMA. FEMA's a disaster. FEMA's a dirty way. People are waking up in droves to the FEMA camps. Can the agency survive the stories that have been told about it? And can we survive without FEMA? American Emergency, the movement to kill FEMA, is a brand new series from WNYC's On the Media. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. The government's approach to AI is sounding a lot less hands-off these days. From Marketplace, I'm Sabree Beneshaw. The U.S. government's attitude toward regulating artificial intelligence has been in a long rollercoaster ride across multiple presidential administrations. The Trump administration's approach has been mostly hands-off. But that is changing. The New York Times reported the president's thinking about setting up a safety vetting process for AIs. And the National Institute of Standards and Technology announced this morning that Google, XAI and Microsoft are agreeing to have their new AI models undergo national security reviews. Marketplace's Nova Saffo has more. President Trump has been loath to regulate AI. On the first day of his second term, he scrapped President Biden's executive order requiring AI companies to disclose safety and security risks. Just two months ago, the White House sent Congress a policy framework that would, among other things, preempt state-level AI regulations. But then, AI startup Anthropic made a big announcement. It was holding back from the general public its latest model, called Mythos, because it was too good at detecting cyber vulnerabilities. Within days, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell held a meeting with bank CEOs to talk about the potential risks to the financial system. Now the White House is reportedly in discussions about forming a working group of industry and government officials to consider a process for assessing a new AI model safety risks potentially overseen by several agencies The New York Times says the process could mirror one being developed in the UK I'm Novosafo for Marketplace. Another area of artificial intelligence that's drawing the government's attention is how young people use it as a friend or even romantic partner. Congress is mulling over a bill that would ban companies from letting people under 18 interact with so-called AI companions. That's AIs that simulate interpersonal relationships. Ashley Gold is a reporter at Axios, and she spoke about this with our Marketplace Tech Show. This bill from Senator Josh Hawley is basically meant to keep kids safe online in this new online world of AI chatbots. It doesn't seek to keep miners from using AI entirely. I think it rules out using AI like in educational contexts and stuff like that. But if it's a chatbot that wants to be your friend or give you advice or have some sort of emotional interaction, that's what they're trying to keep miners from using. So it would ban companies from providing these AI companions for anyone under 18, which is pretty broad. And there are some folks that think that it goes a little too far and that there are some First Amendment issues there. But it's popular. It's bipartisan. And it passed the committee unanimously. Now, as Ashley Gold is senior tech policy reporter at Axios, you can hear the full conversation at MarketplaceTech.org. And United Health Insurance says it's going to eliminate the need for prior authorization for 30 percent of its health care services and medications and eliminate even more prior authorization requirements for certain outpatient surgeries. shares of UnitedHealth Group are down 0.3%. Marketplace Morning Report is brought to you by you Yep the most important piece of our budget is donations from you our listeners We call the folks who donate Marketplace investors, because every dollar you give comes back to you in the form of trustworthy, grounded reporting with a sense of humor. Please become a Marketplace investor today at marketplace.org slash donate, or click the link in our show notes. Some Americans in the United States are waking up to find out immigration detention centers will soon be built in their communities. They say the facilities are seemingly bought overnight without public input, and there's little to no notice given to local governments. As Scott Mazzioni from WYPR reports, it can all be traced back to a war-focused contracting method Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been using to its advantage. In western Maryland, protesters gather outside a Washington County Commissioner's meeting. Patrick Dettilio is among those voicing opposition to the Department of Homeland Security's plan to retrofit an 825,000 square foot warehouse into an ICE detention center. I am horrified at the idea and angry and upset. The county commissioners say the center will create jobs and believe it can operate humanely. DHS used a military contracting method called the Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract, or WEXMAC, to broker a $215 million deal to quickly purchase and build a facility that could hold as many as 1,500 people. Michael Riston is a former DOD intelligence professional and co-founder of Project Saltbox, a group that monitors ICE. It gives them this intensely focused way of just expediting the procurement process, but then also standing up what they consider turnkey detention facilities. WEXMAC was first used during the Biden administration for international emergency situations like natural disasters to set up camps and provide aid using pre contractors But the Trump administration designated Wexmax for domestic use last year as ICE scrambles to find enough space to fit detainees. They're essentially treating the United States as a war zone, and it's just bringing this enormous level of opacity to what has been a more or less transparent process in the past. Senator Elizabeth Warren recently wrote to the Defense Department over concerns of military contractors running these detention centers. Aaron Reichland-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, cites Camp East Montana in Texas as one example. That facility has seen over 100 violations over the course of the eight months that it's been in operation, and three people have died there already. Local residents are worried about the stress the facilities will put on local water systems, property values, and emergency services. Patrick Dottilio says there was no accountability. I think there could have been significant more steps where public involvement could have happened. ICE is awarded about $1 billion in WEXMAC funding so far, but it can be used for up to $65 billion. In Baltimore, I'm Scott Monsioni for Marketplace. And in New York, I'm Sabree Beneshore with the Marketplace Morning Report. From APM American Public Media. and even what a cashless society might be like. There's a bunch of new episodes out now, so go listen to Million Bazillion on your favorite podcast app.