Trump is 're-envisioning America' in a way that resembles North Korea: analysis

Many critics of President Donald Trump have been attacking his immigration policies — from mass deportations to foreign students being detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities because of their political statements — as a blatant assault on due process and the rule of law.

One of those critics is attorney Dean Obeidallah, host of "The Dean Obeidallah Show" on SiriusXM and an opinion columnist for MSNBC's website. During a Saturday, May 24 appearance on MSNBC, Obeidallah warned that Trump's draconian immigration policies are not only a threat to immigrants — they also have disturbing implications for lifelong U.S. citizens.

The New Jersey native told MSNBC's Ali Velshi, "This is not about immigration. Regardless of (what) you feel on that issue, Democrat or Republican, it's something bigger than that…. And that word is freedom…. Donald Trump is going after everything, freedom of speech, in ways we've never seen. I mean, a judge just ruled on Friday protecting the law firms, saying you're going after dissent, going after universities. I had professor Stephen Levinsky on my show, co-author of 'How Democracies Die,' saying: Every autocrat goes after universities because they are independent centers of dissent."

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Obeidallah continued, "He's going after media outlets. He's going after Democrats. They're arresting judges, the mayor of Newark —they dropped the charges, they had no case…. They opened up an investigation into Act Blue because it's a platform to help Democrats raise money. There's now an investigation of Media Matters."

The SiriusXM host described the Trump Administration's policies as a "re-envisioning of what America is about."

Obeidallah told Velshi, "This really is a push and pull between two competing visions of America. One: that we believe in is freedom, the United States of America, with due process — and their vision, which is an autocracy. And that really is what we're dealing with — or easier than that, a dictatorship. They want Trump as the dictator of the United States, and we all have to bow down to him."

Velshi noted that when "due process is taken away…. that's where your freedoms disappear" — to which Obeidallah responded, "Absolutely. It's the only thing that keeps us (from)…. being North Korea."

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