Abnormal Americans are additionally feeling strain from immigration officers for serving to immigrants. Investigative journalist Radley Balko reported earlier this week a few lawyer in Texas who was requested for authorized assist by an immigrant household. Two days after he spoke with them, two males in civilian garments—who by no means recognized which, if any, regulation enforcement company they labored for—knocked on the lawyer’s entrance door and questioned him about his help. The lawyer’s web entry briefly went offline whereas the brokers have been current, and so they refused to present him their names or badge numbers. (Because the lawyer advised Balko, the suspicious timing of his web outage ensured that the Ring digital camera on his entrance door couldn’t seize the change.)
Balko linked the encounter with the Trump administration’s efforts to go after nonprofits, universities, Democratic fundraising networks, and its many critics. “The purpose right here isn’t to get convictions, at the least not but,” he wrote. “It’s to harass, intimidate, and incapacitate anybody with the facility, cash, or platform to thwart this administration’s aspiration for authoritarianism.”
What additionally stands out to me just isn’t solely the authoritarian tendencies however the timing. The second Trump administration is barely 100 days outdated. That is alleged to be the president’s honeymoon part after an election. Presidents are by no means extra common or extra influential than they’re at this level of their phrases. Trump’s public approval rankings are solely now beginning to dip to their lows. The financial system will seemingly run aground within the subsequent few months as soon as the complete pressure of his tariffs is felt, nevertheless it hasn’t accomplished so but.
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