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... In many ways, the first month of the second Trump administration has been shocking. The President has quickly and emphatically demonstrated his contempt for the Constitution, for Congress and the courts, and for federal workers and foreign allies alike. But if some of the particulars have come as surprises, the basic outlines of the administration's plan to decimate the regulatory and service-providing portions of government while consolidating and building executive enforcement capacity were long evident -- and long preceded Trump's presidency. ...
Shortly after his election, Trump announced that Elon Musk would "pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies." The America First Policy Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and Project 2025 joined the call for "dismantling the administrative state." ...
At the same time as it strikes at regulatory agencies, the Trump administration has been arrogating agency resources for a mass deportation plan that Stephen Miller calls "an undertaking every bit as . . . ambitious as building the Panama Canal." Even as it attempts to purge FBI agents seen as insufficiently loyal, the administration has detailed FBI and DEA officers and U.S. Marshals to interior enforcement work. It has used military planes for removals and the Guantanamo military base for immigration detention, and it is actively "ramping up plans to detain undocumented immigrants at military sites across the United States." As they look on, the very same actors calling to tame the administrative state argue for expanding U.S. military capacity, increasing the number and authority of ICE officers, and devolving power to law enforcement field offices. ...
This asymmetry is long-standing. Although we talk about "the administrative state," a closer look reveals two very different faces: one turned toward benefits and regulation, and one turned toward physical force and surveillance. The administrative state's first face, comprising agencies that engage in regulation and distribute benefits, claims the attention of the administrative law scholars and practitioners.
The familiar law that governs agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Consumer Financial Protection Board expects them to derive authority from legislative delegation, to process information transparently based on expertise, and to exercise power in collaboration with the people.
The law governing second-face agencies like ICE, the Defense Department, and the CIA is very different. It allows them to operate without a clear delegation of power, to process knowledge in secret to identify threats, and to exercise control over populations. ...
As the norm for the that site, an in-depth analysis, and worth the read if you are interested ...