Don't Go There

Photo by ev on Unsplash

Imagine you're planning a special vacation. There is a country you'd like to visit, but the news makes you wonder if that's a good choice.

In that country, there is a strange, militarized police force that seems to have no restrictions on its power. Its agents are anonymous and wear masks in public. Groups of them march along city streets in a show of force. They operate without warrants and without any apparent legal justification. They brutally attack people who question them or even look at them. They kidnap people from the street and take them to undisclosed locations. Some of the kidnapped people are held in overcrowded prisons where conditions are so bad they violate both international law for prisoners of war, and the country's own laws for prison operation. The prisoners are denied legal counsel or family visits. Some of them are sent to even worse prisons in other countries. Some of them simply "disappear". This police force has arrested tourists and business travelers, sometimes for minor visa issues, sometimes for what appear to be political motives.

You probably wouldn't take a vacation in the country where this is happening. Would you choose to live there?

They're Looking at You

"Gestapo men", public domain, Wikipedia

ICE is now a huge military force, with a budget bigger than the militaries of most nations. It isn't part of our national defense. It operates only within this country's borders. It does not track down drug cartels or violent gangs. It isn't looking for bank robbers, rapists, or murderers. It will now be receiving from Medicaid and the IRS information that used to be considered private and confidential. Ask yourself what history tells us about countries that have huge internal militarized police forces with operatives whose identities are concealed, arresting people without warrants, moving them to undisclosed locations, imprisoning people without trials, and accumulating vast dossiers of information on the entire population.