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Beiträge, die mit IdeologicalPolicing getaggt sind
So, if you were wondering whether there's anything hypothetical about the "chilling effect" all this fascist repression is designed to produce in folks who oppose the Trump regime, a recent Guardian article demonstrates that it's real and ongoing - not just for anti-genocide protestors and foreign students, but for US-born critics of the regime writing in college papers too:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/07/student-journalists-remove-stories-trump
US student journalists go dark fearing Trump crusade against pro-Palestinian speech
"Fearing legal repercussions, online harassment and professional consequences, student journalists are retracting their names from published articles amid intensifying repression by the Trump administration targeting students perceived to be associated with the pro-Palestinian movement.
Editors at university newspapers say that anxiety among writers has risen since the arrest of the Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention fighting efforts to deport her. While the government has not pointed to evidence supporting its decision to revoke her visa, she wrote an op-ed last year in a student newspaper critical of Israel, spurring fears that simply expressing views in writing is now viewed as sufficient grounds for deportation.
Ozturk is one of nearly a dozen students or scholars who have been seized by immigration officials since 8 March, when Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and green card holder, was arrested and placed in deportation proceedings over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Student editors report particularly acute anxieties among international students who have contributed to their newspapers, but say that requests to take down stories over fears of retaliation are coming from US citizens, too."
The reality that no authoritarian regime wants dissidents to realize, is that they literally do not have the resources to police and punish *everyone* who opposes the state. What they rely on is cracking down on high profile targets that generate a lot of publicity, folks like Mahmoud Khalil, and Rumeysa Ozturk, to force everyone else to self censor, lest they be next. I'm not going to criticize the student writers for asking college newspapers at institutions that have shown no ability or willingness to protect them, to erase their critiques of the regime to protect their personal safety; very few people in our society are actually prepared to suffer the horrible consequences of a fascist police state targeting them personally, and a lot of people reading this would make the same decision in their shoes.
What I will say however is that this response is exactly what the fascist Trump regime wants, and that's why it behooves the rest of society to give a fuck about the free speech rights of student protestors and journalists; and act in numbers large enough to protect us all while working to stop this fascist repression by any means necessary.
#Fascism #Trump #StudentProtests #FreeSpeech #Journalism #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #CivilRights #Gaza #Genocide #Palestine #Israel #MahmoudKhalil #HigherEd #RumeysaOzturk
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/07/student-journalists-remove-stories-trump
US student journalists go dark fearing Trump crusade against pro-Palestinian speech
"Fearing legal repercussions, online harassment and professional consequences, student journalists are retracting their names from published articles amid intensifying repression by the Trump administration targeting students perceived to be associated with the pro-Palestinian movement.
Editors at university newspapers say that anxiety among writers has risen since the arrest of the Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who is currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention fighting efforts to deport her. While the government has not pointed to evidence supporting its decision to revoke her visa, she wrote an op-ed last year in a student newspaper critical of Israel, spurring fears that simply expressing views in writing is now viewed as sufficient grounds for deportation.
Ozturk is one of nearly a dozen students or scholars who have been seized by immigration officials since 8 March, when Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate student and green card holder, was arrested and placed in deportation proceedings over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. Student editors report particularly acute anxieties among international students who have contributed to their newspapers, but say that requests to take down stories over fears of retaliation are coming from US citizens, too."
The reality that no authoritarian regime wants dissidents to realize, is that they literally do not have the resources to police and punish *everyone* who opposes the state. What they rely on is cracking down on high profile targets that generate a lot of publicity, folks like Mahmoud Khalil, and Rumeysa Ozturk, to force everyone else to self censor, lest they be next. I'm not going to criticize the student writers for asking college newspapers at institutions that have shown no ability or willingness to protect them, to erase their critiques of the regime to protect their personal safety; very few people in our society are actually prepared to suffer the horrible consequences of a fascist police state targeting them personally, and a lot of people reading this would make the same decision in their shoes.
What I will say however is that this response is exactly what the fascist Trump regime wants, and that's why it behooves the rest of society to give a fuck about the free speech rights of student protestors and journalists; and act in numbers large enough to protect us all while working to stop this fascist repression by any means necessary.
#Fascism #Trump #StudentProtests #FreeSpeech #Journalism #IdeologicalPolicing #PoliceState #CivilRights #Gaza #Genocide #Palestine #Israel #MahmoudKhalil #HigherEd #RumeysaOzturk
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 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
The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil Hinges on Vague “Antisemitism” Claim
The Trump administration filed no new evidence in its case against Mahmoud Khalil, according to a source who has read the government filing.Jonah Valdez (The Intercept)
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
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
ICE Says It Will Stop 'Ideas' From Crossing The Border Illegally
In a since-deleted social media post, the immigration enforcement agency declared itself the border thought police in a country that is supposed to believe in freedom of speech and thought.Paul Blumenthal (HuffPost)
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
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
Trump Backs 'Blatantly Unconstitutional' Proposal to Send US Citizen Inmates to El Salvador Prisons
"You may not deport a U.S. citizen, period," said one legal expert.julia-conley (Common Dreams)
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
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
ICE Got Warrants Under “False Pretenses,” Claims Columbia Student Targeted Over Gaza Protests
ICE got warrants under a law that bars concealment of immigrants — yet the Gaza protesters were legal residents living at Columbia.Shawn Musgrave (The Intercept)
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
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