This three minute video statement about the Trump Administration detaining and attempting to deport anti-genocide protestor Mahmoud Khalil by US Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) is several days old now, I have no interest in talking about voting or internal Democratic Party politics with you, and I have absolutely nothing nice to say about what I consider a collaborationist (with fascists) opposition in the U.S. federal government.

I'm sharing it simply because Murphy is displaying a shocking amount of frankness for a U.S. Senator speaking to the public, and he is absolutely correct; particularly when he points out that the Trump regime is illegally targeting Khalil precisely because he's the type of person politically unaware Americans will be unwilling to fight for, that allowing this assault on free speech will allow Trump to drastically expand the powers of the American (fascist) police state, and that if nobody stops this then literally anyone who doesn't agree with Trump could be next. Of course, what Murphy leaves out is that part of the reason Trump thinks he can get away with all of this is that the previous (Democrat) administration actively worked to portray anti-genocide student protestors and supporting professors as antisemitic criminals to justify unleashing the police on folks opposing a genocide in Gaza armed, funded, and politically protected by the Biden administration, but that doesn't make what Murphy does say any less true - even if very few members of a Democratic Party purporting to oppose Trump are willing to join him in saying them.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/chris-murphy-warns-today-it-s-mahmoud-khalil-tomorrow-it-s-me-or-you/vi-AA1ALX92

And because I'm absolutely certain that some extremely low-information ActBlue donor is going to get upset at me for saying that last part, here's an article talking about how few Democrats in Congress were willing to put their names to a statement unequivocally opposing the Trump regime's arrest and detainment of a green card holding activist with an American wife, for exercising free speech rights to oppose a genocide:

https://truthout.org/articles/only-14-house-members-sign-letter-calling-for-activist-mahmoud-khalils-release/

In the time since this was published, several more Democrats have come out to publicly oppose Khalil's unlawful abduction and imprisonment, but it's certainly nowhere near the majority of elected Democrats it should be, and many of these later statements have pathetically continued to conflate protesting against a US-backed genocide by Israel in Gaza, with antisemitism - thereby essentially helping to make Trump's emotional argument for him, while opposing only the legal grounds on which the fascist Trump regime claims to be acting.

While you certainly don't "have to hand it to the nazis," I must admit that it's way easier to show people that the Trump regime's attempts to target anti-genocide protestors using "War on Terror" logic will lead to them targeting all protestors using that same logic, when they just blurt that part out loud:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/deportation-protest

DHS Official Explicitly Equates Protest to Terrorism in 'Stunning' Interview

"The Trump administration has accused Khalil, who is of Palestinian descent, of leading "activities aligned to Hamas" and protests where pro-Hamas propaganda was distributed, but officials have provided no evidence that he's provided support to Hamas or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government.

A White House official this week told The Free Press that Khalil is not being accused of breaking any laws, but is rather "a threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States," and Edgar's comments to Martin offered further evidence evidence that DHS is working to deport Khalil without accusing him of a crime.

"He is coming in to basically be a student that is not going to be supporting terrorism," said Edgar. "So, the issue is he was let into the country on this visa. He has been promoting this antisemitism activity at the university. And at this point, the State Department has revoked his visa for supporting a terrorist type organization."

This story comes out of an interview with Troy Edgar (Trump's deputy homeland security secretary) by NPR's Michel Martin; thus it's important to note that while Edgar isn't making a legal argument here, he is absolutely working the court of public opinion to sway your perception about the legality of Trump's unlawful arrest, detainment, and ongoing attempts to deport a former Columbia University student green card holder, legally residing in the country with his wife (who is an American citizen), for protesting a genocide (by Israel) in Gaza, facilitated by both the current, and prior US administrations.

With that in mind, the first thing I'd like to point out is the bizarre, manipulative, and legally irrelevant language Edgar uses here. From a technical standpoint, the phrase "activities aligned with Hamas" is wholly unrelated to any law on the books in America, even our nightmare War on Terror era anti-terrorism laws, while simultaneously covering such a broad spectrum of activities that untold millions of Americans could potentially be "engaging in activities aligned with Hamas" - if for example, as in Khalil's case, you've advocated for ending Israel's genocide in Gaza, or the US government's arm shipments to Israel that make it possible, you've technically engaged in "activities aligned with Hamas," who also want the genocide and arms shipments to end. Does anyone, including Troy Edgar know what "a terrorist type organization" means? You won't find a single paragraph in US law that discusses prohibitions against supporting "a terrorist *type* organization" and this is really just a way for Edgar to say Khalil is working for "terrorists" without exposing himself to liability for false accusations; it's a poison phrase to turn public opinion against the accused, and in favor of the Trump administration's unlawful and quite frankly fascist actions. This is of course setting aside that Edgar, much like the rest of the Trump regime, continues to use the War on Terror legal language of "supporting a terrorist organization" (typically financially, materially, or logistically) to describe protesting a genocide; a stretch that also has no basis in American law that I'm aware of.

Additionally of course, there's the bombshell this article is mostly based around to consider; a US deputy homeland security secretary just went on public radio and argued that (legally nebulous) "pro-Palestine activity" and even just protesting in general, is terrorism. While many disingenuous bootlickers will try to parse Edgar's words here, he was given plenty of opportunities to answer questions about what "terrorist" activities the government was alleging Khalil engaged in, and Troy continually repeated the phrases "pro-Palestinian activity" and "protesting." Furthermore given that the entire Trump administration keeps making this "mistake" over and over again, it seems pretty reasonable to assume that at least from a propaganda perspective this is the regime's official position on supporting Palestinians and protesting in general.

Folks, can you think of any reason why an increasingly unpopular fascist administration presiding over the rapid impoverishment of the US labor class, and working with Israel to ethnically cleanse Gaza, would want to declare "pro-Palestinian activity" and "protesting" to be terrorist activity? Might it be because they expect a lot of Americans to start getting interested in Palestinians and protesting?

#Fascism #Trump #MahmoudKhalil #CivilRights #DHS #TroyEdgar #Gaza #Israel #Palestine #FreeSpeech

As I wrote several times during the first Trump presidency, the obscene amount of power the US system of government affords the president (whomever he or she may be) over immigration, border policing, and counter-terrorism activities, has always meant that Donald Trump doesn't have to build a Gestapo; he already has a ready made cavalcade of security forces more or less directly under his control and ideologically aligned with vast portions of his xenophobic, nativist, and ultimately fascist agenda - including the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the CBP. This direct control and ideological alignment in turn, goes a long way towards explaining why the Trump regime is targeting migrants, foreign visitors legally inside the United States, and folks crossing the border, as a test laboratory for fascist ideological policing policies you can bet your ass Trump intends to roll out against the rest of America if nobody stops him from doing so by whatever methods are necessary.

Take for example this recent story of a French researcher who was denied entry to the US, threatened with federal charges, and then expelled from the country for messages on his phone to friends and colleagues in which he was critical of the Trump administration's drastic cuts to science research funding:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

"France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

“I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added."

Naturally, you're probably thinking "criticizing Trump's shortsighted budget policies and Elon Musk's hard on for destroying any scientific research capabilities he and his tech fascist buddies don't own isn't a crime, and doesn't represent a danger to American security" and you're absolutely right. Unfortunately due to America's twin historical freak outs about "communist spies" and "terrorists" the fact is that American border authorities have already been conducting ideological screening at the borders and turning away folks who share benign opinions with millions of Americans under the guise of "keeping us safe," for decades. What's new here under the Trump regime, is the argument that thinking Der Führer and Elon Musk are idiots, is now being treated as prima facie evidence that someone, even a scientist here for a scientific conference, is a danger to the national security of the United States. In other words, what Trump's border Gestapo is doing here is *probably* legal, but it's still fascist; which is part of why I keep reminding you that America has been embracing fascist ideology and building a fascist police state for far longer than Donald Trump has been involved in politics.

Even more disturbing however, is the news that the FBI was called in to investigate the researcher and charges were considered; again, for criticizing Donald Trump and Elon Musk's quest to gut scientific research funding.

"Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled."

As note above, the researcher was told that the "charges were dropped," but it says a lot about the FBI under the Trump regime that the US government was actively looking for a way to turn private conversations critical of Trump into a criminal offense in the first place. Right now there are probably more than a hundred million Americans expressing critical opinions of Trump, Musk, and the Pork Reich regime; which is a rather ominous thought when you remember that the Trump administration is already manufacturing consent to apply this kind of ideological policing domestically under the guise of opposing "terrorism" and protecting public safety.

#Fascism #Trump #USPol #Gestapo #Immigration #DHS #CBP #FBI #ICE #BorderFascism #IdeologicalPolicing #Musk #PoliceState

Like many folks who study how fascist governments operate, I've been quick to warn people that given the blatantly illegal methods by which the Trump regime has targeted migrants, foreign visitors to the United States, and student anti-genocide protestors legally in the country, it was only a matter of time before Downmarket Mussolini tried to expand those tactics to target dissidents born in the United States. After watching the US Attorney General call Tesla vandalism "domestic terrorism" yesterday, and reading Trump's unhinged social media rants about shipping folks caught vandalizing Tesla cars or dealerships to El Salvador, I think it's safe to say we're already here.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-tesla-el-salvador

'Delusional' Trump Threatens to Send Tesla Vandals to Prison for 20 Years... in El Salvador

"People that get caught sabotaging Teslas will stand a very good chance of going to jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the funders," Trump stated overnight, adding in all caps: "WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!!!"

Several hours later, Trump took up the issue again on his TruthSocial platform, saying: "I look forward to watching the sick terrorist thugs get 20-year jail sentences for what they are doing to Elon Musk and Tesla. Perhaps they could serve them in the prisons of El Salvador, which have become so recently famous for such lovely conditions!"

Civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill said the threat, which follows on Trump's highly controversial deportation of alleged gang members to El Salvador last week, should not be taken lightly.

"Remember that this is where his discussions with El Salvador began," said Ifill in response to Trump's rantings on Friday. "The migrant detentions there are the dry run. He wants to ship U.S. prisoners to El Salvador. We cannot sleepwalk through this."

Well folks, smoke 'em if you got 'em because I'm pretty sure this bloviating nazi windbag is serious. Given the pattern we've been observing by which Trump's musing are treated as "objective" reality by his fascist minions, and how the regime then transforms that (un)reality into enforcement action regardless of the law, I don't think it's a good idea to wave this off as 'Trump being Trump." Just yesterday regime Attorney General Pam Bondi was publicly making the argument that what is, legally speaking, mere vandalism, is actually a "wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties," and that line was then parroted by a variety of regime-loyal mouthpieces in the larger discourse. This process of laying the ground work to transform fascist unreality into a presumed mandate to act is precisely the tactic we saw the Trump regime employ to justify kidnapping student anti-genocide protest leaders residing legally in the United States, render over 200 prisoners to a slave labor dungeon in El Salvador without due process, attempting to either seize control of, or destroy Columbia University, manufacture consent to annex Canada, and even attempt to shutter the US Department of Education. Furthermore, given the regime's continued insistence that invoking the word "terrorism" is a magic spell that allows them to ignore US law and our constitutionally-protected rights, you'd have to be some kind of rube to assume Bondi's media performance yesterday, and Trump's late night social media rant, aren't a coordinated effort to manufacture consent to escalate the regime's war on resistance to include American protestors and dissidents opposing the administration's fascist fuckery.

Of course it almost goes without saying that what Trump is proposing here, the rendition of American citizens to a slave labor prison in El Salvador for the high crime of vandalizing some cars, is highly illegal and a blatant violation of our legally-enshrined civil rights, but that hasn't really stopped the Trump administration from plowing ahead with its war on protest and resistance so far. Furthermore, decades and decades of bipartisan demonization of "criminals" and protestors, particularly those engaging in direct action, likely ensures that many Americans aren't going to notice this fascist repression, or care very much if they do. Naturally, the Trump regime is relying on that attitude prevailing in the larger public consciousness, which is why they're employing a boiling frog strategy of going after people they say are "gang members," "terrorists," "illegals," "antisemites," "troublemakers," and "criminals," first.

As I've noted in the past, whether or not the Trump administration is *successfully* able to get away with blatant violations of the law while enacting his fascist war on our civil rights is unknowable in the present, but the pre-existing pattern of regime behavior in the Trump 2.0 era makes it pretty clear that if Trump says it, he at least means to *try* and do it; which makes all of this an ominous warning for everyone.

#Trump #Fascism #Musk #Tesla #CivilRights #ElSalvador #PamBondi #Protests #ManufacturingConsent #Gulag #USConsitution

After securing the craven surrender of high profile liberal law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP without even entering a courtroom, an emboldened Downmarket Mussolini has ordered his comically corrupt Attorney General, Pam Bondi, to seek disciplinary actions against lawyers who are "filing frivolous claims designed to cause delays." What's a "frivolous claim?" Only Trump and Bondi know, but the note about delays makes it clear that Der Führer is angry that his fascist agenda is being blocked by numerous judicial restraining orders and hopes to do an end around the courts by threatening lawyers and law firms into not even filing suits to halt the regime in the first place.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/22/trump-ramps-ups-retribution-campaign-against-legal-community

Trump ramps up retribution campaign against legal community

"The memo, as a result, created a formal mechanism for Trump to unilaterally decide whether to impose politically charged sanctions through executive orders that strip lawyers of the security clearances they need to perform their jobs or prevent them from working on federal contracts.

Multiple legal experts suggested the memo would theoretically allow Bondi to decide a particular lawsuit that triggered a temporary injunction was causing an unnecessary delay, and refer the firm that filed the suit to face the effects of a punitive executive order.

That could cause a chilling effect and lead to the volume of litigation against the Trump administration to decline, the experts said. Even if the lawsuits are in fact for a legitimate purpose, there’s fear that their representation could put them in the president’s cross hairs and endanger their legal practices.

Trump also directed Bondi to open a review into the “conduct” of lawyers and their respective law firms in litigation against the federal government reaching back to the start of his first term in 2017 – and recommend whether it warranted additional punitive actions.

The memo comes as Trump in recent weeks has used executive orders targeting law firms to great effect."

Frankly, I don't have much to add here that we didn't already look at when I wrote up the Paul Weiss surrender situation we discussed a few days ago. The fact is that Trump has no legal authority to harass and punish lawyers for bringing cases before a judge to stop the Trump regime's often illegal, and frequently unconstitutional activities. Providing a check to the executive branch's power when it violates our civil rights, exceeds the President's authority, or is just straight up criming, is literally the prescribed role of the judiciary branch in the American system of government; the lawyers filing suits to stop Trump's fascist agenda aren't doing anything wrong, they're in fact doing their job as defined in the US Constitution. Trump just doesn't give a shit, and if he can't break the judges ruling against him, he'll happily try to further his authoritarian agenda by using his Department of Justice to harass the lawyers filing against his actions, and starving the law firms of federal access and contracts.

The good news here is that unlike some of their cowardly brethren in white shoe DC law firms, numerous legal advocacy organizations more closely associated with civil rights litigation, are openly stating that they have no intention of backing down. Groups like the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and Democracy Forward, have all issued statements pushing back on Trump's claims and promising to not only continue the fight, but also to keep bringing more cases against an overreaching Trump regime now acting unlawfully pretty much every day.

I'm not sure how much faith I have in the lawyers and the courts to stop fascism; after all, none of these folks have an army or a police force at their disposal to enforce court orders against a fascist regime and a president already granted virtual legal immunity by a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS. But as I mentioned elsewhere, you can't win if you don't fight, and it is impossible to install a fascist dictatorship without a whole lot of collaboration, cowardice, and capitulation by the society the fascists are trying to dominate. Win or lose, fighting back is the first step towards stopping fascism, and as a society our best hope of resisting remains acting in infinite ways, across every sector, to make it cost more in time, effort, money, and if necessary in blood, to impose fascism, than the folks doing so stand to benefit from that fascism. Saying "no" is at least a start.

#Fascism #Trump #Lawfare #CivilRights #PamBondi #DoJ #Legal #Courts

And for references purposes, here's that post about the craven Paul Weiss surrender to Trump's fascist, but still ultimately financial, intimidation:

https://social.treehouse.systems/@AnarchoNinaAnalyzes/114202837875374318

"So, let's make sure we all understand what's going on here. Trump is brazenly and almost certainly illegally, shaking down a powerful law firm that has literally worked on cases opposing him in the past, and is known from their commitment to diverse hiring practices, and instead of fighting back, or even just taking the loss of government money on the chin, they've decided to *check notes* concede that a former partner who worked on cases against Trump was engaged in "wrongdoing," work pro-bono for the fascist regime, and capitulate to the fascist "war on DEI" - an idea whose ever-expanding meaning appears to be "restore mandated white supremacy in America."

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm only a solitary analyst, working through health complications and chronic pain issues; as hard as I try, I can't talk about every story or I want to, or debunk as much spin as I observe in corporate media outlets. Unfortunately in the time since I last covered the Trump regime's ICE abduction of a student protest leader legally residing in the United States, for purely ideological reasons, the Pork Reich has expanded its war on international students who protested Israel's US-back genocide of Palestinians in Gaza; first targeting other students at Columbia, and now expanding to additional schools, like Tufts University, and the University of Alabama.

As I (and many others) predicted, the Trump regime's use of immigration powers to engage in fascist ideological policing, and its loyal Gestapo (DHS/ICE) didn't stop at the illegal abduction of Mahmoud Khalil. In the time I've been writing about other stories, I've failed to talk about a lot of important information and events that shed light on how Trump is using his authority over immigration enforcement to prosecute a war on protestors, and protect a genocide he now owns just as much as the last administration and the rest of the imperialist US establishment do. Unfortunately, I can't rewind time; but I'm going to include some short posts with links to articles talking about what we've missed. It's a lot of reading, but putting it all here in this thread at least allows me to reference these incidents later, once I'm up to current events.

Let's start by looking at Betar; an international, pro-Israel right wing extremist (so, fascist) group who claims to be behind the ICE abduction of Khalil and boasts about supplying the Trump regime with a target list of "thousands" of people for harassment and deportation.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/betar-deportation-list

Far-Right Group Sent List of Palestine Defenders to Trump Officials for Deportation

"Betar, the international far-right pro-Israel group that took credit for the Department of Homeland Security's arrest of former Columbia University graduate student and permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil for protesting the annihilation of Gaza, claimed this week that it has sent "thousands of names" of Palestine defenders to Trump administration officials for possible deportation.

"Jihadis have no place in civilized nations," Betar said on social media Friday following the publication of a Guardian article on the extremist group's activities.

Earlier this week, Betar said: "We told you we have been working on deportations and will continue to do so. Expect naturalized citizens to start being picked up within the month. You heard it here first. Those who support jihad and intifada and originate in terrorist states will be sent back to those lands."

And just in case you think I'm being uncharitable about describing Betar as a fascist organization:

"Critics have voiced alarm about Betar's activities, pointing to the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League's recent designation of the organization as a hate group. Founded in 1923 by the early Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Betar has a long history of extremism. Its members—who included former Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Menachem Begin—took part in the Zionist terror campaign against Palestinian Arabs and British forces occupying Palestine in the 1940s.

Today, Betar supports Kahanism—a Jewish supremacist and apartheid movement named after Meir Kahane, an Orthodox rabbi convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990—and is linked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. The group has called for the ethnic cleansing and Israeli recolonization of Gaza. During Israel's assault on the coastal enclave, which is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case, its account on the social media site X responded to the publication of a list of thousands of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces by saying: "Not enough. We demand blood in Gaza!"

As noted elsewhere, White House officials refused to comment on whether or not they were working with Betar, but given that former executive director of the US chapter, Ross Glick, confirmed the existence of the targets list, and held bipartisan meetings about punishing anti-genocide campus protesters with Senators like (R) Ted Cruz, and (D) John Fetterman, it seems entirely plausible that the regime is using Betar's list to target international student protesters for fascist reprisals and deportations.

#Fascism #Trump #Genocide #CivilRights #Khalil #Betar #Imperialism #Israel #Gaza #CampusProtests #Palestine #ICE #ColumbiaUniversity #DHS #SettlerColonialism

Soon after the regime's ICE abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, news broke that Trump's DHS had targeted two other students who had protested or spoken out online against Israel's genocide in Gaza and attended Columbia university; arresting Leqaa Kordia for overstaying her student visa, and revoking the visa of PhD candidate Ranjani Srinivasan, who ultimately self-deported (so, fled) to Canada. At roughly the same time, it was reported that DHS had executed two search warrants for rooms on the Columbia campus.

1) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3rnzp4ye5zo

US arrests second pro-Palestinian Columbia University protester

"US immigration authorities have announced the arrest of a second activist who participated in pro-Palestinian protests last spring at Columbia University in New York City.

Leqaa Kordia, who is a Palestinian and from the West Bank, was arrested in New Jersey, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said another student, Ranjani Srinivasani, who has Indian citizenship, chose to "self-deport" by leaving the US earlier this week.

This follows the arrest of Columbia campus activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained on Saturday in New York before being flown to a jail in Louisiana."

2) https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/3/27/columbia-let-me-down-how-indian-scholar-expelled-by-trump-fled-the-us

‘Columbia let me down’: How Indian scholar expelled by Trump fled the US

"It was the start of 10 days of confusion and fear for Srinivasan that culminated in her name and grainy airport camera image making global headlines after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused her of being a “terrorist sympathiser” on X.

By then, Srinivasan was in Canada, staying with friends and family, having flown out of New York on March 11, four days before Noem’s post, after concluding that she could be arrested – even though the US government has still not made clear whether she is accused of any crime. She rejects the suggestion that she is supportive of terrorists, but assumes her visa was revoked because of online support for Palestine as Israel’s brutal war on Gaza continues."

3) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/14/homeland-security-search-columbia-students

Homeland security agents search two Columbia University students’ rooms

"Agents from the Department of Homeland Security conducted searches in two Columbia University students’ rooms on Thursday night, marking the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on some American universities.

Also marking that escalation: Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, said on Friday that the federal justice department would examine whether last year’s student protests at Columbia over Israel’s military strikes on Gaza violated terrorism laws. Blanche also said the justice department would examine whether Columbia’s handling of the demonstrations violated civil rights law as Donald Trump’s White House follows through on its self-stated “mission to end antisemitism in this country”.

The university’s interim president, Katrina Armstrong, addressed the school community in a statement, saying she was “heartbroken” to inform them that “there were federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in two University residences” on Thursday night.

Armstrong confirmed that no arrests were made, no items were removed and no further action was taken at the private Ivy League college in New York."

Please not that while Kordia's student visa had indeed expired, and the warrants executed at the Columbia residences were signed by a judge, the larger pattern of using DHS, ICE, and the regime's immigration powers to suppress civil rights, terrorize the students of Columbia, and target international students protesting a US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, was already quite obvious by this point; a fact that the Trump administration didn't deny, but instead bragged about.

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #Columbia #Genocide #Israel #Palestine #CivilRights #CampusProtests #LeqaaKordia #RanjaniSrinivasan

As this March 19th article from the Guardian illustrates, the Trump regime's attempts to terrorize and intimidate international students attending Columbia was immediately having the desired (fascist) effect:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/international-students-columbia-university-mahmoud-khalil

‘I could be next’: international students at Columbia University feel ‘targeted’ after Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest

"Now, Columbia students who are not US citizens, some who have vocally supported Palestinian rights, told the Guardian they feel they must be careful who they speak to and censor what they say. They fear being questioned by Ice agents, having their visas revoked or being arrested and detained. Some feel like they are being watched while walking around Morningside Heights and on campus, while others are reluctant to visit family or friends overseas in case they are not permitted back in the country.

“When I leave my apartment, when I go out, I’m just so much more aware and cautious of who’s around me,” said Seher Ahmed, a psychology master’s student from Pakistan. “I went for a run this morning, and I’ve never felt this way before, but I felt like everyone was, like, looking at me.”

Another student who arrived at Columbia in August last year to study journalism had been inspired by student reporters’ coverage of campus protests. She photographed a vigil where journalism school students recited names of the more than 100 Palestinian and Lebanese journalists killed in Gaza. For a reporting class, the 21-year-old wrote about an anti-Trump rally on election night that called for an end to the Israel-Gaza war. She posted her work and discussed related issues on Instagram and X.

But just days away from applying for a year-long work visa that would follow her expected graduation this May, she stopped posting her opinions and made her accounts private. She is reconsidering attending a friend’s wedding overseas in case she is not allowed back in the country. “I feel like I’m being paranoid, but I’m really scared,” she said."

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #DHS #StudentProtests #Columbia

On March 17th, DHS agents wearing face masks abducted Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar, after informing him that his visa had been revoked by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

1) https://truthout.org/articles/dhs-abducts-georgetown-postdoctoral-researcher-over-pro-palestine-views/

DHS Abducts Georgetown Postdoctoral Researcher Over Pro-Palestine Views

"Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen and research fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (which is part of the school’s Foreign Service program), was detained on Monday night outside of his home in Arlington, Virginia. The immigration officials, who wore face coverings, identified themselves as being Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents and told Suri that his J-1 visa was being revoked at the behest of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on the social media site X."

It should be noted that the Trump regime has since tried to explain away Suri's detention by pointing out that his father-in-law is a former advisor to Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. That reasoning doesn't compute however because Yousef (the father-in-law) left the Gaza government in 2010 and founded a conflict resolution center, and neither Suri not his wife, a US citizen of Palestinian descent have done anything wrong. While Suri has spoken out about the genocide in Gaza, he is not a political activist, and as "a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza." Despite this, Suri remains in ICE detention under reportedly horrible conditions in Texas.

2) https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/24/badar_khan_suri_georgetown_nader_hashemi

Georgetown Scholar Badar Khan Suri Remains in Immigration Jail After Masked Agents Snatched Him in D.C.

"Over the next 72 hours, Suri was transferred to multiple immigration detention centers. He’s currently jailed at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children. Suri’s arrest came just days after federal agents apprehended Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who’s being jailed at a different ICE detention center in Louisiana. Both are being detained under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which gives the U.S. secretary of state authority to begin deportation proceedings against any noncitizen deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy interests — even a green card holder, like Mahmoud Khalil is. On Thursday, a federal judge in Virginia temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Suri while he fights his case.

DHS has accused Suri of, quote, “spreading Hamas propaganda” and claimed Suri has, quote, “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist,” without providing any evidence. Suri’s legal team says he’s being targeted for his political views and free speech, and pointed to an aggressive doxxing and smearing campaign by pro-Israel groups targeting Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh."

3) https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/26/us/mahmoud-khalil-badar-khan-suri/index.html

A glimpse at complaints inside Louisiana and Texas ICE detention centers holding Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri

"Five-point shackles over open wounds. Foul-smelling milk provided in solitary confinement. Feces left in shower cells.

These incidents and others were reported to the ACLU and other legal aid providers between 2022 and 2024 by detainees at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center – where Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, facing possible deportation, has been locked up for two weeks. About 370 miles away, at a different facility in Texas, Georgetown University research fellow Badar Khan Suri faces a similar fate following a Trump administration order to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.

Khan Suri was transferred Friday from the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana – where his lawyers said he was unable to get any contact with the outside world – to the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas.

“ICE detention centers are … effectively black boxes. They are deliberately placed in remote areas where they are out of sight from the public and difficult for families and legal representation to visit,” said Jeff Migliozzi, communications director with Freedom for Immigrants, a national advocacy group monitoring civil rights issues in immigration detention."

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #DHS #MigrantCarceralComplex #BadarKhanSuri #Prairieland #Texas #Alexandria #Louisiana #Palestine #CivilRights #Genocide #Gaza #Rubio

On March 24th, we learned of another student demonstrator targeted by the Trump regime for anti-genocide protest, when a junior at Columbia University, Yunseo Chung, sued numerous administration officials seeking a temporary restraining order "barring the government from detaining her based on her protected speech and in the absence of independent, legitimate grounds." Cheung, a legal permanent resident who has been living in the US since she was 7 years old, was targeted for helping set up a protest encampment on campus, handing out some fliers, and her mere participation in a sit-in at Bernard College to protest the expulsion of students who participated in the anti-genocide campus protests last year.

1) https://www.commondreams.org/news/yunseo-chung

Another Columbia Protester Targeted for Deportation Sues Trump

"The 21-year-old, who moved from South Korea to the United States with her family at age 7, participated in some student protests on Columbia's campus "related to Israel's military campaign in Gaza and the devastating toll it has taken on Palestinian civilians," states the complaint. "Chung has not made public statements to the press or otherwise assumed a high-profile role in these protests. She was, rather, one of a large group of college students raising, expressing, and discussing shared concerns."

Earlier this month, she was arrested by the New York Police Department at a student sit-in "to protest what she believed to be the excessive punishments meted out by the Columbia administration to student protesters facing campus disciplinary proceedings," the document details. "Mere days later... the federal government began a series of unlawful efforts to arrest, detain, and remove Ms. Chung from the country because of her protected speech."

The suit asserts that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) "shocking actions against Ms. Chung form part of a larger pattern of attempted U.S. government repression of constitutionally protected protest activity and other forms of speech," specifically, "university students who speak out in solidarity with Palestinians and who are critical of the Israeli government's ongoing military campaign in Gaza or the pro-Israeli policies of the U.S. government and other U.S. institutions."

Yeung, who went into hiding to avoid ICE detention as part of a regime act of blatantly unconstitutional ideological policing, was ultimately able to secure a restraining order to prevent her arrest while she continues to fight deportation attempts despite her status as a legal permanent resident.

2) https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/25/columbia-gaza-protester-yunseo-chung-lawsuit

Student who sued Trump takes powerful stand against ‘constant dread’ of deportation threats

"On 5 March, Chung – a 21-year-old student at Columbia University – attended a sit-in to protest the expulsion of several students involved in pro-Palestinian activism at the famed New York university. Four days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents showed up at her parents’ home.

When they couldn’t find her there, Ice sought help from federal prosecutors and searched her dormitory – using a warrant that cited a criminal law against “harboring noncitizens”. They revoked her green card and accused her of posing a threat to US foreign policy interests.

On Monday, Chung sued Donald Trump and other high-ranking administrations to stop their targeting of her and other students. And on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its efforts to arrest and deport Chung, saying “nothing in the record” indicated that Chung posed a danger to the community."

#Trump #Fascism #ICE #DHS #Columbia #Gaza #Genocide #Israel #CivilRights #FreeSpeech #CampusProtests #YunseoChung

Yesterday, chilling video emerged online of ICE pigs kidnapping University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was snatched off a Somerville, Massachusetts street while on her way to meet friends for iftar, as part of her observance of Ramadan. Although details are still emerging, it appears that like virtually every other international student targeted by Trump's immigration Gestapo, Ozturk, "a doctoral candidate in the university’s [Tufts] Child Study and Human Development department and formerly attended Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar," isn't being accused of a crime, but rather had her visa revoked for constitutionally-protected speech criticizing Israel's genocide in Gaza; in this case, an op-ed she wrote in Tufts Daily.

1) https://truthout.org/articles/tufts-student-activist-rumeysa-ozturk-abducted-by-ice-on-her-way-to-iftar/

Tufts Student Activist Rumeysa Ozturk Abducted by ICE on Her Way to Iftar

"Officials initially did not specify where Ozturk had been taken, and Khanbabai was unable to reach her. Later on Wednesday, Khanbabai said in a motion that she was informed by a senator’s office that the student was transferred to Louisiana. DHS agents also sent Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil to Louisiana, where he is being held in an immigration jail notorious for its abuses.

The transfer is despite the fact that a judge approved a petition barring Ozturk from being removed from Massachusetts without advance notice filed by Khanbabai on Tuesday. The Trump administration has been openly flouting court orders when it comes to its anti-immigrant onslaught; earlier this month, for instance, immigration officials deported Brown University assistant professor and doctor Rasha Alawieh to Lebanon, despite a judge having ordered the visa holder not to be removed.

Ozturk’s abduction comes just days after she was doxxed by Zionist vigilante group Canary Mission, advocates for Palestinian rights said. The group cited her activism against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including an op-ed published in Tufts Daily last year demanding that university leadership divest from Israel and condemn its slaughter of Palestinians."

Look folks, I don't know who needs to be told that surrounding and abducting an academic legally studying in the United States for writing an op-ed calling on Tufts to divest from Israel and condemn the genocide in Gaza, is textbook fascism, but it is. This is the kinda shit our government uses as justification for international sanctions and military intervention in non-democratic countries that happen to have large oil and gas reserves. Furthermore, as someone who has a number of close friends and colleagues who've been doxed by the assclowns at Canary Mission for nothing more than attending peaceful anti-genocide protests, I can't tell you how profoundly disturbing it is to even consider the possibility that the Trump regime is using their woefully baseless and politicized records to identify targets for deportation in America. This is fascist ideological policing, designed to intimidate Ozturk and other academics or students who would speak out; absolutely nothing about this is legal, or a legitimate attempt to protect public safety. We're literally snatching up scholars off the street for criticizing the government, Israel, a genocide, and apparently even the response of American universities to anti-genocide protests.

This McCarthy-esque bullshit isn't a warning sign of creeping fascism; this is Trump's all American fascist police state acting in broad daylight, with presumed impunity, to punish political speech and silence dissent. And while this represents an escalation of Trump's fascist war on student protestors, the situation is unfortunately all too familiar to Muslim American observers living in the United States under the still active logic of War on Terror policing.

https://archive.is/IlRY6

The New Video of Federal Agents Ambushing a Student and Disappearing With Her Should Chill You to Your Core

"As a Muslim American, in moments like these, it feels like there isn’t much else left to say. The Trump administration is trying to normalize a disquieting new chapter of something that’s happened now for nearly three decades. In that time, we’ve watched our communities surveilled, detained, blacklisted, and interrogated under the guise of national security. After 9/11, hundreds of Muslim immigrants were swept up and held without charge—some in solitary confinement for months. The NYPD mapped our neighborhoods, infiltrated our mosques, spied on our student groups at places like Yale, Rutgers, and the University of Pennsylvania. (I once discovered it kept a file on me.) None of it produced a single terrorism lead. These stories don’t just vanish when the news cycle goes on. They remain with us, in a country where many of us were born but will always be viewed with suspicion. The message has been clear: The government will find a reason to come for us."

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #DHS #Kidnapping #RumeysaOzturk #CivilRights #Gaza #Genocide #Tufts

The Trump regime has expanded its blatantly unconstitutional college campus kidnapping spree beyond the Ivies; this time ICE snatched University of Alabama doctoral student Alireza Doroudi at his off campus home at 5AM on Tuesday. The DHS has refused to provide clarification for why Doroudi, a mechanical engineering student from Iran who is legally studying in the United States, was detained; beyond some vague nonsense about "national security."

https://archive.is/m42G7

ICE detains University of Alabama doctoral student as government's college crackdown continues

"David Rozas, an attorney representing Doroudi, said in a statement Saturday that they are "confused" about why Doroudi was detained. Doroudi has maintained lawful status while studying at the university, Rozas said.

"We have not been made aware of any allegations of misconduct against my client," Rozas said. "We do not believe he is suspected to have committed any crimes nor participated in any political activities whatsoever."

He said Doroudi has a pending EB-2 application, a pathway to a green card for immigrants who hold an advanced degree or have "exceptional ability."

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an emailed statement: "ICE HSI made this arrest in accordance with the State Department’s revocation of Doroudi’s student visa. This individual posed significant national security concerns."

Given the DHS's refusal to provide adequate details, many mainstream news outlets are reporting that it's unclear if this particular visa revocation and ICE kidnapping is part of Trump's larger fascist war on college campus protestors and people who write op-eds criticizing Israel's genocide in Gaza. Given the methods the regime used to target Doroudi and fact that ICE has already shipped him to the notorious detention center in Louisiana that it shipped most of the other students to however, I think that position is a little too credulous. At a minimum, sources at the University of Alabama have indicated that the community there regards this as part of Trump's racist repression of international students.

#Fascism #Trump #AlirezaDoroudi #UniversityOfAlabama #ICE #DHS #Kidnapping #CivilRights #Racism #WhiteSupremacy

At the risk of stating the obvious, it would be nice if media minions on my TV would spend any time at all analyzing Trump's fascist ICE kidnapping spree as part of a larger plan, with an eye on what the regime is actually trying to accomplish here. Maybe American media outlets are spooked by living in a country where it's increasingly illegal to admit racism exists, but it's not like it's impossible to do the legwork; even for corporate media. Take for example this piece in the international edition of The Guardian, pointing out that it's almost certainly not an accident all of DHS's targets for fascist ideological policing and deportation are people of color, even though a majority of the folks participating in campus anti-genocide protests the regime is claiming represent a threat to our national security, were white folks born in America.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/26/us-universities-students-israel-palestine-protests

‘A warning for students of color’: Ice agents are targeting certain protesters, say experts

"Now, at least five students and academics of color at US universities have been targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), as a part of the Trump administration’s ongoing push to punish noncitizens over their support of Palestine.

“What we’re seeing is the use of immigration law to go after visa holders, permanent lawful residents, [over] their speech,” said Samah Sisay, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). “He’s trying to suppress political speech that goes against what the administration wants.”

Despite white students, professors and academics also being heavily involved in pro-Palestine protests, people of color have disproportionately faced sudden arrests and threats of deportation or had their visas revoked.

“We’re just seeing the focus on very specific people,” said Sisay, referring to academics of color. “I think it really is to try to create a wedge in solidarity, the multiracial, multiethnic solidarity that’s been created in support of Palestinian human rights.” Ice’s actions, she said, have “set a warning for students of color at these universities who rely on scholarships and educational support to improve their lives or better the situations for their family.”

So look, maybe you don't need to be a genius to figure out why an openly white nationalist, Islamophobic, and deeply xenophobic Trump administration is starting its attempts to criminalize protest and dissent, with non-white academics, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim. These guys are fucking nazis, and that's the kinda shit nazis do; although I'll be honest with you, the next time I see a corporate media outlet explain the actions of the Pork Reich by directly saying "well they're fascists, obviously" it'll probably be the first.

The truth however, is that Stephen Miller, who is definitely running Trump's immigration policies and his fascist war to crush dissent, is the kinda crudely cunning fascist who absolutely "uses the whole cow." Sure the regime is stacked to the brim with raving white nationalists, but they're also clearly working to break the solidarity of the anti-genocide protest movement, while simultaneously targeting people Americans have already been taught to hate in order to shift the Overton Window far enough towards fascism to allow them to start black bagging and imprisoning *anyone* of *any* immigration status, who opposes the regime. It is irresponsible to simply repeat regime propaganda to justify illegally disappearing protestors, without helping your audience put these events in a larger context that would explain why it's important for all of us to oppose Trump's fascist repression of people many Americans don't care about and have been taught to dislike, if they don't want the regime's next assault on civil rights to strike closer to home.

#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #StephenMiller #CivilRights #Genocide #Gaza #Israel #Racism #CampusProtests #Kidnapping #Media #OvertonWindow #Islamophobia

Given the stunning level of illegality and disregard for civil rights the Trump regime has deployed in its fascist war on student protestors who oppose a US-backed genocide in Gaza, would it surprise you at all to learn that the Department of Homeland Security probably lied their asses off to get the warrant they used to search two student dorm rooms for activists they'd targeted for illegal deportations?

https://theintercept.com/2025/03/28/ice-warrants-columbia-students-gaza-protests/

Ice Got Warrants Under “False Pretenses,” Claims Columbia Student Targeted Over Gaza Protests

"Earlier this month, while hunting for Columbia University students to deport over their ties to Gaza protests, the Trump administration convinced a federal judge to sign off on search warrants for two students’ dorm rooms — then raided the residences with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

As details about the warrants have emerged, however, so have allegations that federal agents misled the court and secured the warrants under “false pretenses,” as one of the students whose room was searched, Yunseo Chung, claimed in a lawsuit challenging her deportation.

The warrants were predicated on probable cause that Columbia was “harboring” students who were in the country illegally, court filings indicate. Chung, however, is a lawful permanent resident, notwithstanding the Trump administration’s efforts to deport her based on her arrest and citation at a Gaza sit-in. She has lived in the U.S. since she was 7 years old.

“The idea that they went before a federal magistrate judge and said, ‘We have to search Ms. Chung’s residence for evidence of Columbia harboring her’ — that shows they’re willing to lie to a judge,” said Nathan Yaffe, an immigration attorney."

This story isn't particularly complicated; DHS told a judge they needed search warrants because Colombia was "harboring and concealing illegal aliens on its campus" specifically to find two students it knew had legal status to be in the country. Of course Trump's warpig lapdog Marco Rubio is arguing that the student(s) were "illegal" because he unilaterally revoked their student visas/green cards, but actually he can't legally do that and since the government hasn't brought the matter before an immigration judge, the targets of the warrant were straight up ineligible for the crime the warrant was seeking to find evidence for or suspects for an arrest.

#Fascism #ICE #DHS #Trump #Gaza #Migrants #Genocide #StudentProtestors #Kidnapping #CivilRights #Israel #FreeSpeech #ColumbiaUniveristy #YunseoChung #StephenMiller #IdeologicalPolicing

In an ominous episode that is still being treated as "Trump being Trump" by some portion of the corporate media, Downmarket Mussolini has once again floated the idea of transferring American citizens to a slave labor torture prison in El Salvador:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-el-salvador

Trump Backs 'Blatantly Unconstitutional' Proposal to Send US Citizen Inmates to El Salvador Prisons

"With a deadline looming for the Trump administration to return a Maryland resident to the U.S. after expelling him along with hundreds of other people to an El Salvador detention center under a shadowy deal with the Central American country, U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday stunned observers by expressing a desire to send U.S. citizens into El Salvador's prison system.

In a press briefing aboard Air Force One Sunday evening, Trump was asked by a reporter about an offer made by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to accept prisoners sent by the U.S. from its federal prison population.

"I love that," Trump said. "If we could take some of our 20-time wise guys that push people into subways and hit people over the back of the head and purposely run people over in cars, if he would take them, I would be honored to give them."

"I don't know what the law says on that," he added. "I have suggested that, why should we stop at people who cross the border illegally?"

I know I'm not the only person working in this space that's getting sick of hanging on Der Führer's ever word, musing, and threat, but as we've discussed many times, part of the way this regime operates is by transforming Trump's ravings into presumed consent to act on its worst fascist impulses and plans, in a system of "enforced unreality." When the president says, multiple times, he wants to send US citizens to a gulag in El Salvador, he's being dead serious about the regime's intentions; whether that's legal, or anyone in a position to stop him will do so, is another matter entirely - but this guy isn't just talking to hear himself talk, no matter how hard that may be to believe for people who know how profoundly ignorant and unstable Trump actually is. Given that reality then, the regime's continued quest to manufacture consent for rendering US citizens to a foreign maximum security torture prison, brings up 4 important issues:

1) We literally have no idea what Trump's deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele says, and the arrangement is extra-judicial at best.

"As Trump expressed interest in expelling U.S. citizens to a foreign prison system, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council pointed out that the details of the White House's deal with Bukele have not been publicly disclosed.

"We literally know nothing about it, other than we're paying them $6 million," said Reichlin-Melnick. "No law in the United States authorizes us to pay another country to imprison people. And yet! They're doing it."

2) At the same time Der Führer is advocating for the wonders of rendering US citizens to the carceral "care" of an authoritarian foreign government aligned with the Trump regime, the US government is also arguing in court that once they send someone to CECOT, they no longer have the ability to bring them back because they don't have custody of the prisoner and El Salvador is outside of US jurisdiction. Taken together then, this means that the President of the United States is currently advocating for the wisdom of, and his right to, permanently disappear US citizens. I don't care how much of a trav-sham-mockery you think Trump is, that's arguably the most terrifying news to emerge from the entire Trump 2.0 era.

3) While Trump's current rhetoric is focused on "dangerous criminals" and the examples he gives are mostly made up violent crime stories, the reality is that this regime has been arguing that folks protesting its fascist agenda, boycotting Elon Musk, or acting to oppose a US-backed genocide by Israel in Gaza, are literally domestic terrorists and an active threat to US national security. Furthermore it requires no conjecture to connect these facts to the regime's gulag fantasies because the Attorney General has already indicated support for sending "domestic terrorist" anti-Tesla protestors to CECOT. If they want to disappear you into a gulag for depressing Elon's profit margins, you can bet they're fine with doing so for protesting a genocide, or even just opposing Trumpism in the streets.

4) While all of this sounds horrifying and impossible, the reality is that our anti-terrorism policies under the Bush administration after 9/11 have already established a precedent for the US govt shipping people to legal black holes and claiming they hold no responsibility for protecting their rights as part of the extraordinary rendition policy. As many warned at the time, the War on Terror was always destined to return home, and it seems that under Trump, it has done precisely that.

#Fascism #Trump #Gulag #CECOT #WarOnTerror #PoliceState #IdeologicalPolicing

If for some reason you still had delusions that what's going on under the Trump regime in America is somehow *not* fascism, a since deleted ICE post on "The Daily Stormer the social media site" (aka Twitter, aka X) should disabuse you of that notion quickly:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-ideas-border-crossing_n_67f80dc0e4b09493c8d88d45

ICE Says It Will Stop 'Ideas' From Crossing The Border Illegally

"It appears that the country’s primary immigration enforcement agency has, at least briefly, declared itself the border thought police. In a country that is supposed to believe in the freedom of speech and thought, this raises a host of questions.

What ideas does ICE believe are illegal? How can ideas even cross the border illegally? And how does ICE screen for these illegal ideas to stop them from coming in?

ICE did not respond to these questions but did tell HuffPost that the “post was sent without proper approval and should not have been shared.”

″‘Ideas’ should have said ‘intellectual property,’” a spokesperson for ICE said in an email.

That isn’t to say the Trump administration and ICE aren’t policing ideas that they deem “illegal,” including by stripping visas and green cards from students, denying entry to foreign visitors and arresting and deporting people for their opinions.

Chief among them is any criticism of Israel. The administration has sought the deportation of numerous students for their participation in or support for protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. The most high profile of these cases are those of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk."

I don't know who needs to hear that Trump's Gestapo admitting it's policing "ideas" is a sure sign that the regime isn't "fascistic" but is in fact just doing fascism, but it is. Furthermore I don't really see the spokesman's excuse that ICE was talking about "intellectual property" as being valid because when the government acts to protect intellectual property in the context of borders, it's about keeping American IP from being stolen by foreign adversaries; ICE targets people (and apparently ideas) coming INTO the country, not leaving it.

I hate to keep quoting Maya Angelou on you folks, but not a day has gone by since Trump took office a second time where her maxim "when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time" doesn't apply.

#Fascism #Trump #PoliceState #Gaza #Genocide #Israel #CivilRights #IdeologicalPolicing #ICE #DHS #AmericanGestapo

As if it's *trying* to prove my point that the Trump regime is engaging in the fascist policing of "ideas" and the targeted repression of those who articulate them, the US government has admitted in court that it has no legal basis to detain and try to deport Columbia University graduate and activist leader Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the United States, besides his ideas and political positions. The government, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is straight up arguing that Kahlil's opposition to Israel's US-backed genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, which it baselessly describes as "antisemitism," represents a threat to US foreign policy objectives, which in turn allows the regime to enact a rarely used provision in the Immigration Nationality Act to justify the fascist targeting of the former student protest spokesman.

In other words, the regime is admitting that Kahlil hasn't committed a crime, but is being deported for purely ideological reasons under the guise of protecting American national security; which is more or less exactly what the administration has been saying out loud until the precise moment when someone points out that this is fascism, at which point they briefly deny it.

https://theintercept.com/2025/04/10/deportation-case-mahmoud-khalil-antisemitism-rubio-trump/

The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil Hinges on Vague “Antisemitism” Claim

"Khalil’s attorneys said it’s clear the government’s case is about cracking down on his speech in support of Palestine and represents a precedent amid the Trump administration’s nationwide attacks on universities and students. The Trump administration has revoked hundreds of students since Khalil’s arrest. Many were not involved in protests at all, while some were being targeted for low-level misdemeanors.

“And where would this lead?” Van Der Hout said. “Are we going to now throw people in jail for speaking out against the Social Security cuts in this country? This is a dangerous slope, and we are taking a stand on behalf of Mahmoud, and he is taking a stand.”

“He’s decided to stay in jail and fight this case to the bitter end,” he added, “while we try to establish that people like Mahmoud have a constitutional right to speak out in this country.”

If there's an upshot here, it's that all of this is patently illegal, and even the Immigration Nationality Act little Marco is using to justify this fascist bullshit contains a provision "that prevents the secretary of state from using the “foreign policy” provision to deport someone based on an individual’s speech unless it has compelling grounds to do so." The fact that the government has refused to produce evidence that would justify deporting Kahlil probably increases his chances of being released, and soon.

The bad news of course is that the Trump regime has already ignored multiple court orders forbidding its fascist activities, and the government is openly asserting the right to target, detain, and deport, again, a *legal* permanent resident of the United States, who is married to an American citizen, for purely ideological reasons. That assertion may not survive a judge's ruling in this particular case, but with a 6-3 fascist high Supreme Court in its pocket, it feels like it's only a matter of time before the regime wins one of these arguments before a more sympathetic judge - and then there is no predicting how far the new American Nazi movement will go to crush dissent and ideological opposition to its authoritarian rule.

#Fascism #Trump #ICE #DHS #Nazis #MahmoudKhalil #SCOTUS #MarcoRubio #PoliceState #Gaza #IdeologicalPolicing #Genocide #WhiteNationalism #Israel #Immigration #FreeSpeech

In what may well be one of the most shameful episodes in American legal history since the abolition of chattel slavery, a Louisiana immigration judge has ruled that the Trump regime can continue its blatantly unconstitutional deportation of a lawful permanent US resident and political prisoner, Mahmoud Khalil, pretty much because Marco Rubio says so:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/mahmoud-khalil-deportable

'Very Dark Stuff': Judge Rules Palestine Activist Mahmoud Khalil Can Be Deported

"A U.S. immigration judge in Louisiana on Friday ruled that Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident and former Columbia University graduate student arrested last month after protesting Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, can be deported, a decision that came despite the Trump administration admitting the imminently expecting father committed no crime and was being targeted solely for constitutionally protected speech.

Assistant Chief Immigration Judge Jamee Comans said that she lacked the legal authority to question the determination by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Khalil was deportable. Earlier this week, Comans gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until Friday to produce evidence that Khalil is eligible for deportation.

No such evidence was provided other than Rubio's assertion that he reserves the right to order Khalil's expulsion under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which empowers the secretary of state to expel noncitizens whose presence in the United States is deemed detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests."

As the article itself notes, this isn't a final victory for the Trump administration; Khalil can and will continue to fight this, and most legal experts seem pretty confident this is all going to end up in front of the Supreme Court before the government can actually deport him; although why the court's 6-3 fascist high composition gives anyone confidence that they'll stop the regime's fascist and blatantly unconstitutional ideological policing and repression, is somewhat beyond me. As horrifying as this decision is, a random immigration judge doesn't get to say "surprise, fascism is legal now" even if that's more or less what this ruling is pointing to.

With that having been noted however, I need folks to understand what the regime's successful (for now) argument is here, because if you don't get that, it's impossible to grasp just how far these nazis clearly mean to go with this. The government is admitting that Mahmoud Khalil had a legal right to be in the United States, and committed no crime whatsoever. They are expressly stating that he's being targeted for deportation because of his political beliefs, and opposition to the US-back genocide being conducted by Israel, against Palestinians in Gaza as we speak; which they have chosen to define as antisemitism for political and propaganda reasons. This is a fundamental denial of Khalil's First Amendment rights which regardless of what you heard on Fox News, apply to everyone in the United States, not just people born there.

Despite this however, the regime is arguing that they have the right to deport Khalil because the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 gives the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the right to unilaterally, even unconstitutionally, order Khalil's expulsion; citing that the Act empowers him "to expel noncitizens whose presence in the United States is deemed detrimental to U.S. foreign policy interests." Who decides what US foreign policy interests are, has a right to to declare those decisions state secrets, and can change those potentially secret objectives at a whim? The Trump regime. Who decides which actions are "detrimental" to U.S. foreign policy decisions and who should be deported for them? Well the regime's argument is that it's Marco Rubio or whoever happens to be Trump's Secretary of State, and that he can do it by a whim, without explaining or justifying his decisions whatsoever.

So you caught that right? The regime can violate the constitutional rights of even a lawful US resident, because Marco Rubio feels a way, and he's not required to provide any more proof than "I said so." And yesterday, a U.S. immigration judge agreed with that logic. All of which now begs the question, what, or who, will Little Marco decide is "detrimental to U.S. foreign policy decisions" tomorrow?

#Fascism #Trump #Immigration #Courts #MahmoudKhalil #Protest #PoliceState #MarcoRubio #Gaza #CivilRights #JameeComans #ImmigrationAndNationalityAct #Genocide #McCarthyism #FreeSpeech #Israel #Constitution