Cynically Using Immigration and Intimidation to Lead Us to Despotism

I write this on Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day dedicated to a sincere commitment to two slogans that must be more than slogans; they must be actions. “Never Forget!” And “Never Again!”

I have gotten into trouble for raising the specter of the Holocaust when analyzing our current situation. I’m told that the Holocaust was a unique event and nothing is like it.
No comparison is appropriate, but only serves to reduce the horror of this tragedy. True, but I’m not comparing today with 1942-45 Germany. I’m looking at 1934 Germany and the road that led to the Holocaust. I don’t see the immanence of death camps, but I do see the paving of the road and laying of the tracks that led to Auschwitz.

There are approximately 436 prison warehouses dedicated to holding people accused of being here illegally. Death Camps? No, though people living in often squalid conditions with bad food, worse water and no real medical care do die. What number would change these holding facilities to death camps?

Are the 32 who died in ICE custody in 2025 enough or only a start? What number of shootings by ICE that are cleared of wrongdoing before a completed investigation constitutes a credible charge that the government is killing its own people? Is 16, the current number of shootings with premature exonerations, enough?

Edmund Burke wrote, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Bob Dylan asked, “How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see?” I quote them on this sacred day because we can too easily become cowed and insensitive to the eroding rights of others, and be in denial that what can be taken away from others can be taken from us. So, I look, listen and quake for all the “Others” we create—for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, as well as Muslims and Jews. I feel for them because “Them” is me! As in A Man for All Seasons, I advocate for others “For my own safety’s sake.”

We give authorities the power to enslave us when we tolerate the diminishment of others and remain silent as our fellow humans are dehumanized, denigrated, beaten and even murdered. When a group becomes seen as less than fully human, we can treat them appropriately to their metaphor: Subhuman, Animals, Vermin, Monsters, Dogs and Pigs. There is no need to give rights or respect to animals. What do we do with them? Eat them! Nor do we recognize any inherent rights for insects and vermin. What do we do with them? We exterminate them.

Labels make a difference. The most popular epithet favored by the Trump regime is Domestic Terrorist. This is a brilliant libel. It summons the painful memories of 911 and adds a subliminal Islamophobia. The people in the streets protesting the random violence and well-planned recission of Constitutional rights directed at immigrants, are called “Domestic terrorists.” They are accused of coming not to protest the violence of ICE and persecution of Black and Brown people but with impeding a legitimate federal program. Their protests are mischaracterized as violent, and they are accused of assault for having been assaulted.

The federal agents, National Guard, and Marines are not deployed to keep the peace or make our cities safe. They are not beating people in Los Angeles, terrorizing immigrants in Orange County, pepper-spraying protesters in Seattle and Chicago and murdering people in Minneapolis to solve an immigration crisis. This is not about our border, or the criminals who are among our immigrants—two real issues that we could discuss and work to solve.

No! The undertrained, violent and undisciplined agents in our streets are not addressing a societal problem; they are the problem, spreading fear and violence and sewing societal discord that could rupture our nation.

Unfortunately, this may be the point. Whatever the individual ICE agent’s sense of mission might be, I believe that they are in our streets to tear us apart, to foment violence and rebellion, to provoke a new version of the Reichstag Fire to justify invoking the Insurrection Act.

Immigration and intimidation don’t battle each other for an explanation of our slide to authoritarianism. They work in synergy to stimulate fear of the “other” in our population and make us too fearful and frustrated ourselves to rise up, speak up and show up. They raise our fear and ire while keeping us from engaging the issues. Illegal immigration and the “worst of the worst” are not central to Trump’s plan. Making protests dangerous and criminal is the objective. Protestors are portrayed as haters of America, left-wing lunatics, paid puppets of Soros and wholly illegitimate.

If agents of “our” government can beat us and kill us with impunity, if our tormentors have 100% immunity (According to Vance) and can be confident of a Presidential Pardon, we no longer have the rule of law, and we are well on our way to authoritarianism.

We mustn’t avert our eyes and pretend that we just don’t see. For our own safety’s sake, we can’t remain silent at the oppression of others. And most importantly, we must never become one of the “good men” (and women) who allow evil to triumph because we did nothing.
Never Forget! Never Again!