ICE is conducting a campaign of terror and desensitization

For an agency within the Department of Homeland Security with roughly 22,000 employees and a budget of over $9 billion, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency commits a lot of what would seem to be extremely foolish mistakes.

Mistakes like sending a man to a foreign torture prison for life based on an administrative error. Or targeting the wrong home, forcing a mom and her three daughters to stand around in their underwear while everything of value is stolen from them.

However, when considered in context of their other actions, ICE's mistakes don't look like mistakes at all. They look like part of a dedicated campaign of terror and desensitization meant to test the boundaries of what Americans will tolerate and cow anyone who even considers standing in opposition to Donald Trump.

Can Trump scoop up dozens of immigrant men, most of whom have no criminal record, and jet them off to a notorious prison in El Salvador without a trial, hearing, or any hint of due process? It appears he can.

Among them: a makeup artist, a soccer player and a food delivery driver, being held in a place so harsh that El Salvador's justice minister once said the only way out is in a coffin.

A month later, ICE still refused to confirm the identities of the men sold into slavery for life. So yes, Trump can get away with that. In fact, Republicans have made regular trips to celebrate the event, generating some truly sickening images.

Republican representatives even travelled to El Salvador on the taxpayers' dime and conducted their photo ops at the prison after being given tours and demonstrations of the harsh conditions. Democratic reps had to pay their own way and were refused admission.

If those images from CECOT look familiar, they should.

But what happens when one of those men behind bars in the death prison is discovered to have been arrested purely on an "administrative error?"

In court papers filed Monday, the government admitted that "on March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error."

Nothing happens. Well, nothing but Trump and El Salvadorian dictator Nayib Bukele laughing over how they destroyed a person just for kicks. Can Trump get away with refusing to bring the man home, even when ordered to do so by the Supreme Court?

President Donald Trump on Tuesday acknowledged that he could secure the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador last month but refuses to do so.

He not only can get away with it, he has. Trump can do that. There's a reason for that Andrew Jackson painting in Trump's office, and it's not just the bond they share over racism and stealing people's land for profit. A real dictator doesn't let the courts tell him what he can do.

1. Trump has successfully tested the idea of deporting immigrants without due process.
2. Trump has successfully demonstrated he can send people to a foreign for-profit prison that engages in torture and slave labor with no prospect for release.
3. Trump has demonstrated that he can refuse the order of district courts, appellate courts, and the Supreme Court with no consequence.

In addition to these men who, despite having no criminal record, were declared "the worst of the worst" and sold into a lifetime of torture, ICE has also been testing another aspect required by any secret police force: Will America tolerate people being snatched off the street by men in black masks who refuse to identify themselves?

Will they stand back as a terrified women is thrown into a van and taken away?

It turns out that they will. They'll also stand by as teenage girls are taken from an airport, strip-searched, and held in captivity with no reason provided.

4. Trump has shown that ICE can kidnap people from the street, from their home, or from their business without charge, without identification, and with no regard to court orders of protection.
5. Trump has shown that these people can continue to be held indefinitely, or sent to any nation, in defiance of the courts.

Trump has run through the checklist and demonstrated he can get away with whatever he wants when it comes to those who have come to America seeking asylum. He's demonstrated that he can be equally abusive to immigrants on green cards, student visas, and plain old tourists.

But what about American citizens who are the children of immigrants? Ending "birthright citizenship" has long been a part of both Trump's campaign and Project 2025. Despite warnings that a move to attack this clear Constitutional law would result in a "mountain of opposition," Trump has ordered ICE to take that hill.

Three young children who are US citizens - including one with cancer - were deported to Honduras alongside their mothers last week, according to advocacy groups and the families' lawyers. One of the children is a four-year-old with Stage 4 cancer who was sent without medication, a lawyer for the child's family said.

While this incident has gotten more attention, it's not even the first time ICE has made such a move against a U.S. citizen who is a child of immigrants. On Feb 4, a family seeking medical care for a 10-year-old daughter recovering from brain cancer was deported along with their other children, even though the children were born in the United States.

6. Trump has shown that he can force young citizens to leave the country by deporting their parents without due process and putting them in a position where they are forced to make an immediate decision without recourse to counsel or assistance.
7. That both families included children in desperate need of medical care, with at least one family detained on their way to a doctor appointment, is a good signal that ICE is digging into medical records as a way to find and strongarm immigrants into making impossible decisions—it's also horrendously cruel.

Not only has Trump exiled citizens without facing consequences, he's made it clear that he wants to do it to more than just the children of immigrants. A lot more. That includes sending American citizens to that foreign prison known for slavery and torture, from which the only release is death.

"The homegrowns are next, the homegrowns. You've got to build about five more places," Trump said to Bukele, an apparent reference to prison space that would be needed in El Salvador to house U.S. citizens.

There is no crime for which U.S. law allows the exile of a citizen. There is no branch of government with this authority. Trump is engaging in a massive abuse of power that is clearly illegal.

Immigrants can be deported from the United States, while citizens cannot. Deportation is covered by immigration law, which does not apply to U.S. citizens. Part of being a citizen means you cannot be forcibly sent to another country.

However, someone might want to tell that to Republicans, who earlier this week voted down legislation to block immigration enforcers from using federal resources to detain or deport U.S. citizens, Republicans cast that vote even after U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty reminded them that, "It is illegal and unconstitutional to deport, detain for deportation, or recommend deportation of a US citizen."

8. Trump has made it clear that he intends to kidnap and exile citizens well beyond the limits of birthright citizenship.
9. Republicans have made it clear that they will cheer him on despite there being no legal authority for this action.

Earlier this week, ICE, along with the FBI, raided a home in Oklahoma and assaulted a woman and her three daughters.

Any comfort they had disappeared Thursday morning when about 20 men, armed with guns, busted through the door. ... She said they ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes.

“They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them,” she said. “My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments—her own dad, because it’s respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear.”

She kept trying to tell the ICE agents the one thing that she thought would protect her family.

“We’re citizens. That’s what I kept saying. We’re citizens.”

No one cared. The agents treated the woman and her daughters "very roughly," then they tore apart the house, taking their phones, their money, and everything of value.

“I told them before they left, I said you took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,” she said. “I have to feed my children. I’m going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around. Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog.”

DHS has since admitted that they knew they had the wrong people. But that didn't stop them from abusing the family, forcing a mother and three underage girls outside in their underwear, and stealing everything from the house.

10. Trump has shown that ICE can break into any home, on any justification, and proceed to terrorize, abuse, and steal. As with ICE's other actions, the more cruelty, the better.

Can they deport people without due process? Yes. What happens if it's the wrong people? Nothing. And if the court says otherwise? Ignore them. Can you hold someone in the US on no charges? Yes. How long? As long as you like. But what about court orders? See above. Can you exile citizens? Yes. Can you break into their homes, steal their money, and gawk at their half-naked daughters? You betcha.

ICE has been conducting a campaign to test the boundaries of Trump's power. And what they've found is clear enough: There are no boundaries.

No one has stood up to stop them. Congress is quelled. The courts are toothless. The people are more concerned about the price of auto parts than a fully-operational Gestapo patrolling the streets in black masks.

From now on, the only thing that changes is that there will be more of it. And more. And more. Until everyone is fully desensitized and knows what to do when a neighbor is hauled crying into an unmarked van—look away.

That is ... unless we do something about it. It has gotten very late, but it is not too late to stop this. Not yet.

• Document ICE raids and other abuses. Share that information broadly.
• Support organizations working to provide legal assistance and resources to those targeted by ICE
• Join those advocating for the elimination of ICE.
• Make sure your political representatives at every level understand that you do not support the tactics of ICE – yes, that includes Republicans.
• Assist organizations offering sanctuary and support for those facing deportation.
• Understand your rights when interacting with ICE and make sure others around you know their rights.

Trump isn't engaged in a war on immigrants. He's conducting a campaign of terror and an authoritarian power grab that is based on making his dictatorship a fait accompli before America wakes up to what's going on.

“You’re not going to get an ounce of sympathy from this administration or President Trump,” Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and arbiter of immigration policies, said Thursday.

They offer no quarter. No one is safe. Wake up.