technocrit

In just the span of two weeks, ICE unlawfully deported a Maryland father with legal protection from removal and detained a Turkish Fulbright scholar without due process. Both actions undermine judicial authority, sidestep legal protections, and expose the agency’s increasing willingness to act as an unaccountable enforcement arm of the executive.

The Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany, did not begin as an omnipotent terror machine. It evolved into one. Formed in 1933 and consolidated under Heinrich Himmler by 1936, the Gestapo operated outside judicial oversight.

It detained “enemies of the state” without warrants, held people in “protective custody” with no legal recourse, and enforced political conformity through fear. It became the spearpoint of Nazi totalitarianism not solely through brutality, but through the systematic erosion of legal constraints and the normalization of exceptional authority.

The alarming direction of ICE in 2025, at the very start of Trump’s second term, bears a critical resemblance to this historical model.

Whenever anyone mentions either Hitler, Nazi Germany, the Gestapo and SS, etc., there are many people who claim to be outraged by the comparison! Some claim doing this is either dishonest, untrue, or an overreaction, while others who have horrible family memories from the Holocaust and associated events, and seem to feel any comparison, in some way, minimizes their loss! Although, one could probably do a thesis on the comparison between President Trump (and some of his closest advisors) and Hitler (and his), the purpose of this article is rather, to consider, examine, review and discuss some eerie, horrific similarities between today’s ICE (and its behavior and actions) and those of the 1930’s to early 1940’s Gestapo and so-called Brown Shirts (used in Nazi Germany to refer to the SA or Sturmabtilung, which was the Nazi Party’s paramilitary organization , often referred to as “Storm Troopers” in England). Please beware it does not mean ICE is a Nazi group, but rather some of its actions and activities are eerily similar!

When combined with a potential shift towards targeting US citizens for dissent and disobedience, ICE is fast becoming a key piece in the repressive apparatus of American authoritarianism.

A delegation of relatives and friends of Venezuelans deported from the United States and imprisoned in Nayib Bukele’s mega-prison arrived in El Salvador on Monday to demand “proof of life” and to enquire about the detainees’ health status. Members of the delegation include Lisbeth Johana Sanguino, aunt of Widmer Sanguino, who arrived in the U.S. as a refugee, and Reina Cárdenas, a friend of Andry Hernández Romero, a renowned stylist who was processing his asylum application at the time of his deportation.

Khalil, a legal permanent resident married to a U.S. citizen, has become the face of the Trump administration's crackdown on student protesters opposing Israel's war in Gaza. He was the first of several students across the U.S. who were detained and threatened with deportation. Khalil was taken by immigration agents outside his New York City home in early March and detained in Louisiana.

While other students were released from detention, the Trump administration kept Khalil behind bars in Louisiana. During this time, he missed the birth of his first child. When he flew back to New Jersey over the weekend, Khalil was met with cheers as he pumped his fist into the air.

The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply alarmed by reports that Australian writer Alistair Kitchen was denied entry into the United States after border officials at the Los Angeles International Airport searched his phone and questioned him about his views on the Israel-Gaza war.

A Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and detained in one of that country's most notorious prisons was subjected to "severe beatings" and "torture", new court documents allege.