A terrifying scene unfolds: A 30-year-old woman walks down the street, heading to dinner with friends. Suddenly, six men in masks and plain clothes grab her and force her into a vehicle. She has done nothing wrong; she is not a criminal or a wanted fugitive. Imagine her fear as these government agents employ Gestapo-style tactics to push her into their car.
During the 1920s, scenes like this were common when Benito Mussolini, whose movement coined the term “fascism,†sent his Black Shirts to assault socialists on the streets of Rome. A decade later, similar occurrences were frequent as Hitler’s Nazis arrested trade unionists and social democrats in Berlin.
Could this ever happen in the United States, a constitutional democracy since the late 1700s?
On March 25, the troubling scene described above unfolded in Massachusetts when , a doctoral student at Tufts University holding a valid F-1 student visa, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. She was arrested and, as of this writing, remains imprisoned in a remote facility in Louisiana.
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Her only “crime†was co-authoring an op-ed in the university newspaper that expressed support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. This article led to the revocation of her visa, although she was unaware of this at the time.
Ozturk’s case is not an isolated incident. Since the Trump Administration announced its plans to crack down on “Hamas sympathizers on college campuses,†ICE agents have invaded college towns across the United States. Students have been arrested at the University of Minnesota, Columbia University, and the University of Alabama.
Recently, the MAGA brand of fascism reemerged in Maryland when ICE agents apprehended , a husband and father of a 5-year-old. They placed him on a flight with hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants and sent him to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
In 2019, an immigration judge determined that Garcia should be protected from deportation to his native El Salvador, where he would likely face persecution from local gangs. Even the Trump administration acknowledged its mistake in sending him there, but has resisted calls to bring him back.
During Stalin’s rule in Russia, millions of political opponents were exiled to the Gulag, a network of forced labor camps in Siberia. Similarly, after Pol Pot took control of Cambodia in the 1970s, his Khmer Rouge regime evacuated the cities, forcing the urban population into the countryside to participate in futile agricultural projects.
And, of course, the Nazis sent millions of Jews, political dissidents, gay men, people with disabilities and the Roma to concentration camps during the Holocaust.
In all three regions where fascist methods were employed, even in the pursuit of communist egalitarianism, millions lost their lives. This outcome may be expected in countries where fascism had become deeply entrenched.
But what about the United States? Are we headed in that direction? Or will our constitutional rights serve as a barrier to prevent this disaster?
Remember that Ozturk and Garcia were in America as legal immigrants, entitling them to the same constitutional rights that protect us all. Where was Ozturk’s First Amendment right to free speech when she was punished for merely co-writing an opinion piece? Where was Kilmar Garcia’s right to due process, guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment, before being expelled from his established life in Maryland without even being granted a court appearance?
Additionally, considering that the prison in El Salvador can house up to 40,000 inmates, with 65 to 70 people per cell, and is notorious for its abuse, torture, and lack of medical care, where is Garcia’s Eighth Amendment right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment?
Based on previous case law, it has been established that non-citizens residing in the United States have fundamental civil rights protected by the Constitution, including due process rights. However, that is no longer the case in Trump’s America. During the first two months of his second term, the United States began sliding down a slippery slope toward fascism.
It is concerning that several countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal, have already issued travel advisories or warnings to their citizens planning to visit the United States. Given the wealth, power and influence of the U.S., if Trump succeeds in extinguishing the light of liberty here, what would that mean for the rest of the world?
