Nothing was more central to the American idea than rule of law and freedom of speech.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a legal permanent U.S. resident in Vermont, was at an interview to finalize his citizenship when ICE goons arrested him. His “crime?” Protesting the Gaza war.
Previously, on the same pretext, Mahmoud Khalil (a legal resident, with an American wife and child), and Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts student, got the same treatment. Ozturk kidnapped off the street, hustled into a car. All three sent to a remote Louisiana detention center (because Louisiana has Trumpy judges), awaiting deportation.
Lawyers challenging Mahdawi’s treatment in federal court in Vermont met with regime claims that the court doesn’t even have jurisdiction over deportations. Actually insisting it can deport people with no due process to contest charges against them.
That happened in Abrego Garcia’s case, lacking even a flimsy pretext like those others — the regime admits his deportation to a foreign hellhole was simply an error. But refuses to undo it — a thumb shoved in all our eyes.
Now in Wisconsin, a judge prevented ICE from grabbing a man inside the courthouse, which is not supposed to be allowed. They’ve arrested the judge.
I once called ICE a gestapo. That was during the Obama administration. Those guys, in comparison to today’s, were pussies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio brags of mass student visa cancellations for “lunatics” who’ve supposedly undermined U.S. foreign policy by protesting Israel’s Gaza atrocities. It’s complicity in them that does undermine our international interests. But even if protesters were wrong, they have a right to express their views. The First Amendment applies to everyone in this country, not just citizens.
Republicans for years bleated about freedom of speech; JD Vance recently had the chutzpah to lecture Europeans about it. What bleeping hypocrites when they themselves so blatantly violate the concept.
They also prattle about law and order. Screamed (falsely) about political “weaponization” of justice. Now doing exactly that to persecute critics and dissenting voices. Even branding them “traitors.” Such regime actions — openly defying court orders — and more, like pardoning January 6 rioters — shred the rule of law.
We’re in a bizarro world where black is white and white is black.
The real lunatics, criminals and traitors are Trump, his ICE gestapo, and all their enablers. They’re the ones who belong behind bars.
