As former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich reminds us, it didn’t take long for a police state to rise up under Donald Trump. He is a part-time professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. Recent developments, including the trade war on hold and antagonistic ICE raids across the country, have raised and deepened the controversy around how Trump has ruled.
On Saturday, Trump authorized the deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard troops to LA County. This decision further raises the temperature in a highly charged climate. Federal raids in San Diego, Martha’s Vineyard, and the Berkshires led to dramatic standoffs. Furious bystanders attacked agents as they arrested workers, at times pulling agents from their vehicles. Recent reports have documented agents from ICE, DHS, FBI and DEA conducted the operations. They apprehended 121 people in the course of those work.
Stephen Miller, then a senior advisor to Trump, labeled the protests targeted by these raids an “insurrection.” The federal presence has increased astronomically. In a chilling development, ICE officers have recently begun mobilizing outside courtrooms across the United States to arrest people inside—even migrants whose cases judges have thrown out.
Reich points out that Trump’s administration is systematically creating an infrastructure typical of a police state through a five-step process: declaring an emergency, using that emergency to justify the deployment of federal agents, allowing those agents to conduct dragnet abductions and warrantless arrests, expanding prison facilities and detention camps, and ultimately declaring martial law.
This new, methodical approach has civil liberties advocates and critics concerned about the dangerous path toward even more violence.
“The violent mob assaults on ICE and Federal Law Enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of Criminal Illegal Aliens from our soil. A dangerous invasion facilitated by criminal cartels (aka Foreign Terrorist Organizations) and a huge NATIONAL SECURITY RISK. Under President Trump, violence and destruction against federal agents and federal facilities will NOT be tolerated.” – Donald Trump
With these recent developments, citizens from all sectors of society have been encouraging people to think about what these actions mean for democracy. Reich has noted that historical patterns suggest it takes only 3.5% of a population to topple an authoritarian regime and end a police state, indicating that public dissent could play a crucial role in determining the future of governance in America.
Yet Trump’s extreme tactics have elicited scorn from strange bedfellows. A multi-billionaire tech executive recently turned against Trump, reflecting growing unease among influential figures in various industries regarding his administration’s approach.