"Everything else — the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions." - VP JD Vance, as the budget reconciliation bill was approaching final passage in the House.
The policy has been clearly stated. Getting rid of immigrants is the one and only priority. Health care policy does not matter. Budget policy does not matter.
And as we see here, rights do not matter, if they get in the way of aggressive pursuit of immigration policy.
Absolutely. Ideological alignment is increasingly mandatory. As they run out of immigrants to persecute, the ideologically "impure" will become the main target.
We have "police must identify themselves" baked into the public consciousness to the level that the drunkest guy in the Saturday night holding cells still manages to belt out "What's yer badge number?"
Accountability is part of it, but I think the bigger part of that is how it terrorizes people to be (or see others) swept up by a gang of unidentified thugs.
It's all interconnected. Getting grabbed by a gang of masked thugs is terrifying because you have no idea what is going to happen to you.
When you're grabbed by uniformed officers who identify themselves, you have some foreknowledge of the process you're entering into. The process is not perfect and it can still harm you greatly, but there's rules and at least some of them are likely to be followed. There's accountability, and that accountability gives you some assurance.
You can't make those assumptions about a gang of masked thugs.
They are doing it because they can. Linking it to one side of the political debate is an unhelpful straw man. As an example the openly political tone of the article makes me trust it less.
The policy has been clearly stated. Getting rid of immigrants is the one and only priority. Health care policy does not matter. Budget policy does not matter.
And as we see here, rights do not matter, if they get in the way of aggressive pursuit of immigration policy.