If Trump can do it to them, he can do it to you

Let’s say you don’t like what the Trump administration is doing, or you don’t like Trump. You express these views on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

You take a two-week vacation in France. When you try to return to the United States, U.S. immigration agents arrest you. They detain you in solitary confinement. They don’t let you contact your family. They don’t let you contact a lawyer. Then they send you to a brutal prison in El Salvador.

But wait! You scream over and over. You can’t do this! I’m an American citizen!

Your screams have no effect.

Sound far-fetched? Recently, a French scientist was prevented from entering the United States because U.S. Border Patrol agents had found messages from him in which he had expressed his “personal opinion” to colleagues and friends about Trump’s science policies.

In another case, immigration agents detained Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University who was trying to return to the United States after visiting relatives in Lebanon.

Dr. Alawieh was not allowed to do that. She was deported despite having a valid visa and a court order blocking her removal. Federal authorities alleged that they found “sympathetic photos and videos of prominent Hezbollah figures” in her phone and that she attended the funeral for the leader of Hezbollah in February.

But these are just the Trump regime’s allegations. No court has been able to review this evidence.

U.S. border officials concede they’re using more aggressive tactics these days, which the administration calls “enhanced vetting,” at ports of entry to the United States.

Okay, so maybe you don’t go abroad. You just express views that the current U.S. government regime dislikes. As a result, U.S. government agents arrest and detain and then “disappear” you. They say you’re a threat to national security.

Again, not as far-fetched as it sounds.

The regime has begun to target legal immigrants in the United States who have expressed views that the Trump regime believes threaten national security and undermine foreign policy.

Investigators for Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been searching videos, online posts, and news clippings of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.

To deport people living in the United States with green cards or valid visas, the Trump regime has invoked a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state sweeping power to expel foreigners who are seen as a threat to the country’s foreign policy interests.

Using that authority, ICE agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate who has Palestinian heritage and took on a prominent role in the pro-Palestinian protests at the school, and Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen who has been studying and teaching at Georgetown.

Mr. Khalil has a green card, which means he is a legal permanent resident.

Apparently, the State Department believes Dr. Suri engaged in antisemitic speech that would undermine diplomatic efforts to get Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire. He is in the United States on a visa for academics.

On Monday night, Dr. Suri was surrounded by masked Homeland Security agents outside his home in Virginia, arrested, and placed in an unmarked SUV. A judge has temporarily blocked his removal from the country.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, accuses Khalil of “siding with terrorists” and Dr. Suri of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”

But why should we believe her? She has provided no evidence. Why should we believe anything the Trump regime alleges? Neither Khalil nor Suri has been charged with a crime.

Or consider Venezuelan and Salvadoran men who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Where are they now? Their families don’t know. They’ve been disappeared over the past week, with no explanation provided by the government over why or where they may be.

None of these cases has been reviewed by a court of law. There have been no independent findings that any of these people constitute a danger to the United States, or even that their views are dangerous.

There’s not even been an independent finding that these people are non-Americans. For all we know, they could be just like you or me — Americans who have expressed views that the Trump regime dislikes.

Do you see how perilously close we are to the edge?

Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.