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0 pointsjshier6mo ago0 comments

Yes, ICE has been a bad actor since the day it was created, which is why "shutdown ICE" has been a thing on the left for a while now. But it's now operating as the private military of Donald Trump and the executive branch on a scale never before seen in America. Its upcoming budget is greater than every other federal law enforcement agency combined. We see videos every day of their gleeful assaults on anyone they like, while their leadership has explicitly stated there will be no repercussions, and that they should be as abusive as they want.

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layer86mo ago

In a way, the 9/11 terrorists have brought much more damage to the USA than they could have ever hoped for.

JuniperMesos6mo ago

What do the 9/11 terrorists have to do with the US federal government using federal police to enforce immigration law largely against illegal immigrants from Latin America, decades later? Osama bin Laden had a fairly specific immediate poltical goal, resisting US military influence in Muslim countries and US support of Israel. His broader goals involved revolutionary Islamic fundamentalism in the Muslim countries of the middle east. None of this was related to Latin American immigration to the US, legal or otherwise.

dragonwriter6mo ago

> What do the 9/11 terrorists have to do with the US federal government using federal police to enforce immigration law largely against illegal immigrants from Latin America, decades later?

The centralized security apparatus in the Department of Homeland Security being leverage here exists entirely as a result of the reaction to 9/11.

ModernMech6mo ago

No, 9/11 did nothing more than give Americans permission to fully activate our latent racism, nationalism, xenophobia, and bigotry, which existed long before 9/11. The problem with America is we are racist to our core, and we'll do absolutely everything and anything to prove it to the world time and time again.

mindslight6mo ago

I wasn't aware that Trump coordinated 9/11 with Bin Laden (through the Saudis?), but at this point it wouldn't really surprise me. (tongue in cheek, of course)

But please let's stop framing recent developments as if they are merely continuations of existing trends. The surveillance state and federal "law" enforcement were definitely out of control well before Trump, and both authoritarian parties share responsibility for that. But it hadn't been being used to launch a frontal assault on domestic civil society. Responsibility for that rests solely on Trump (and his enablers/supporters).

potato37328426mo ago

>Yes, ICE has been a bad actor since the day it was created,

100yr ago you could've said the same about the FBI. They're still bad, but they've got better marketing these days. I am not hopeful.

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