As an American, I agree - I'm pretty surprised at how nakedly transparent the whole thing has been. One basic example - I thought pretty much everyone agreed that at least some level of due process is just inherent to the rights of everyone in the US. When I hear administration figures arguing that flying the Venezuelans to El Salvadoran prisons is a good thing because "they're really bad dudes", I think "OK, and we're just supposed to trust that you and you alone can make that determination?" It has already been reported that multiple people had no ties to the Tren de Aragua gang, but were solely imprisoned due to their tattoos. When I took civics in high school this is exactly the type of stuff that we learned that basically "the US does not do", and there was an inherent pride in that fact. So like you I'm surprised at how quickly and transparently it all got washed away.
They started this tactic of "They're bad dudes trust us don't need a trial" during the Bush administration and many many people pointed out this would come to our shores soon, and it did and it's here again.
Yeah, not prosecuting serious violations of law like war crimes, tortue, and mass surveillance was a serious mistake that lead to this situation. It reinforced a culture of impunity for those in power.
Because people allowed this to happen, the current administration is now more emboldened than its recent predecessors ever have been.
My point is that even getting to that ruling would've been much harder if there was actual respect for the law and more importantly, the democratic values behind those laws. And by respect, I mean the general population actually enforcing it by holding those in power accountable.
True, in the event that government fails to hold someone accountable, it falls on the people to do that instead. I think there are different visions of what that justice looks like when carried out that way.
Obama ordered the assassination of a US citizen[0] with no due process, so I don't think the rhetoric of "they're bad dudes trust us" ever really went away. Tried to hide it, maybe, but never gone.
> Venezuela's Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Friday that none of the hundreds of Venezuelans deported by the U.S. to a Salvadoran prison is a member of Venezuela's Tren de Aragua criminal gang, the reason Washington gave for expelling them.
> "I believe with absolute responsibility that not a single one appears on the organizational chart of the now-extinct Tren de Aragua organization, not a single one," Cabello said on a podcast, saying he had names of the deportees from U.S. media and his own source.
> Venezuela says Tren de Aragua was effectively wiped out in 2023, and that the idea that it still exists is based on a claim from the country's political opposition.
Exactly. I'm willing to believe some of these people were indeed "bad dudes", but literally 0 evidence was provided one way or the other. And these people weren't just deported back to their home countries - they were imprisoned in demonstrably brutal fashion.
Yeah, yeah, Godwin's Law and all that, but the similarities with mid-20th century fascism are undeniable here. The administration specifically started with targeting a small, well-defined minority (that is, people in the US illegally, or at least purported to be here illegally), and then extended to valid visa holders (what's the point of being on legal visa if it can be revoked at any moment with no judicial review and then you can be imprisoned for weeks/months) and now legal permanent residents. It's just classic creeping fascism.
This is what happens when “rule of law” is subverted on the generational scale — eg, by enabling illicit mass migration opposed by the majority of the people. They eventually feel that appeals to “rule of law” are merely emotional manipulation used against them and stop caring in pursuit of a solution to what they perceive as a problem.
Do people really think imperfect enforcement of immigration law is an excuse to willfully discard the right to trial or constraints on presidential power?
The people that simply want an excuse to be racist do. That's a part of the country that people like trump enable. Happened in 2017 and is happening again.
