America Is Now a Police State

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Jonathan Alter, Washington Monthly: If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And if you have $75 billion over four years in new funding for ICE, you ...

Posted by retort at 09:00 AM | 30 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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"While most people spent the budget fight fixated on health care policy, I suspect that in a year we will consider this legislation to be the moment that Trump created his own internal security apparatus."

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-- The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) Jul 13, 2025 at 12:00 PM

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... if you have $75 billion over four years in new funding for ICE ...

Inside ICE's superpowers
www.axios.com

... The images of masked, heavily armed immigration agents snatching people off the streets and taking them away in unmarked cars have shocked many Americans " and led to a simple question: Is all of this legal?

It is " at least for now.

Why it matters: Since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created after the 9/11 attacks, its agents have operated with vastly more enforcement power, less transparency and fewer guardrails than local police. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-15 12:33 PM | Reply

"Police states are good, actually, because..." - MAGA

#2 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-07-15 12:34 PM | Reply

@#1

More from the link...

... Under Trump, critics say, ICE has become the closest thing the U.S. has to a secret police force.

ICE agents aren't required to wear body cameras, can cover their faces, don't have to provide badge numbers or identify themselves, can arrive in unmarked cars and don't need a warrant from a judge to detain someone. ...

#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-15 12:35 PM | Reply

A hearty F*** YOU to everyone who said "you're over reacting".

#4 | Posted by Nixon at 2025-07-15 01:00 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 3

For whites finally. It's always been one for some.

#5 | Posted by fresno500 at 2025-07-15 01:03 PM | Reply

I dont care. no one cares.

-eberly

#6 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2025-07-15 01:08 PM | Reply

If we didn't have all these "peaceful protests" where cars and buildings get torched we wouldn't need them.

#7 | Posted by fishpaw at 2025-07-15 01:40 PM | Reply

MAGAts show their support for the------------------- by killing DC cops and smearing their filth all over the halls of congress.

#8 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2025-07-15 01:44 PM | Reply

If we didn't have all these "peaceful protests" where cars and buildings get torched we wouldn't need them.

#7 | POSTED BY FISHPAW

You're an anti-American f*^%ing moronic dips*^%.

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-15 03:15 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

"Before long, many of us won't even notice the roundups, just as white Californians in 1942 didn't pay much heed when their Japanese-American neighbors were whisked away to detention camps in the desert."

Wrong. They noticed.

They just didn't care.

Just like now.

#10 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-15 03:27 PM | Reply

Wrong. They noticed.
They just didn't care.
Just like now.
#10 | Posted by eberly

No, that's revisionist history.
Half of Americans supported rounding up the Nips.
A third opposed it.
A sixth didn't care.

In 1942, 48% of Americans believed that Japanese-Americans incarcerated during World War II should not be allowed to return to the Pacific coast after the war, with half of this group suggesting they should be sent "back to Japan"
news.gallup.com

#11 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-15 03:32 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

-No, that's revisionist history.

so, they noticed and very few cared. Most supported the police state movement.

that's not revisionist history....it's accurate history.

thanks for confirming it......and getting a little attention from me in the process.

a 2-fer! good for you.

#12 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-15 03:42 PM | Reply

@#4 ... A hearty F*** YOU to everyone who said "you're over reacting". ...

Makes me wonder how long will it take the Trump admin to find the ~right type~ of people to staff up ICE, and what he will then use that agents for? His enemies?

#13 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-15 03:44 PM | Reply

Thugs swaggering around in what appear to be tossed together paramilitary uniforms du jour behaving like enforcers for a beleaguered regime ... .Are they trying to provoke someone into taking a shot at them so the Fuhrer can tell Gauleiter Homan to let his dogs slip their leads?

#14 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-07-15 03:52 PM | Reply

Half of Americans supported rounding up the Nips.
~ Snoofy

Why do you just make up ----?

However, the way that Americans during World War II viewed the Japanese American internment was divisive.
A poll from the American Institute of Public Opinion in March 1942 shows that 93 percent of
Americans were in favor of the removal of Japanese immigrants and 59 percent supported the
removal of Japanese American citizens. Only 1 percent opposed the internment of Japanese
immigrants, while 25 percent opposed the internment of Japanese American citizens
researchrepository.wvu.edu

The only divisive part of it was interning Japanese citizens

#15 | Posted by oneironaut at 2025-07-15 03:59 PM | Reply

"Wrong. They noticed.
They just didn't care."

"Most supported the police state movement."

Hmmm.

I am willing to accept that works for Republicans.

Like when Trump answered Howard Stern's question, did Trump support the war on Iraq. Trump's 'yeah I guess so' also indicated he didn't really care much one way or the other.

#16 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-15 06:09 PM | Reply

police state

--charge from same cesspool dishonest prix who loved it when dems hired 10,000 IRS agents....AND ARMED THEM.

-same s't who saluted armed troopers
arresting a family on the beach in CA ( of course) ALL BY THEMSELVES.
and so many more examples.

--"you people" just can't help showing off your little clubhouse in the newest
leftist-d0gma klan fun house of 2 faced
liars.

#17 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2025-07-15 06:16 PM | Reply

So IRS agents shouldn't be armed? IN AMERICA? That's the hill you want to die on?

#18 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2025-07-15 06:20 PM | Reply

Why is shrimptacoteatard against Americans having guns?

#19 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2025-07-15 06:20 PM | Reply

charge from same cesspool dishonest prix who loved it when dems hired 10,000 IRS agents....AND ARMED THEM.

Only a small fraction of IRS agents are armed, just like other federal agencies that have enforcement arms.

So yet again, you're full of s^*%.

Because you're f^*+ing stupid.

#20 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-15 09:29 PM | Reply

-I am willing to accept that works for Republicans.

It worked for almost everyone in 1948.

The author apparently wants you to believe they were unaware of such a travesty occurring.

They were aware.

They WANTED it to happen.

#21 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-15 09:47 PM | Reply

"On top of this, Congress might as well tear down the Statue of Liberty and flush Emma Lazarus's poem down the toilet."

LOL

#22 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-15 09:51 PM | Reply

Wow, has Joe Rogan abandoned Pres Trump?

Joe Rogan: Nobody would have signed up' for Trump if they knew how he would use ICE (June 25, 2025)
www.yahoo.com

... Podcast personality Joe Rogan broke with President Donald Trump again over a new issue.

"Bro, these ICE raids are (expletive) nuts, man," Rogan said to two guests Luis J. Gomez and Big Jay Oakerson in a recent episode of his podcast published June 18. ...

#23 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-15 10:29 PM | Reply

"Joe Rogan: Nobody would have signed up' for Trump if they knew how he would use ICE (June 25, 2025)"

^
Trump told us how he was going to use ICE.
He's got "Promises Kept" messaging all up on the socials.

#24 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-15 10:40 PM | Reply

"The author apparently wants you to believe they were unaware of such a travesty occurring."

Author?
It's a Gallup Poll from 1942.

#25 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-15 10:41 PM | Reply

Author of the attached article

#26 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-15 10:46 PM | Reply

@#24 ... He's got "Promises Kept" messaging all up on the socials. ...

Yeah, but some of the major podcast hosts seem to be having issues.

And, if I may also add FBI Dep Dir Dan Bongino to the list.

He also seems to be finding that his unfettered support of Pres trump on his podcast may have not resulted in a good outcome for him?

#27 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-15 10:52 PM | Reply

YES! We can only hope.

"And if you have $75 billion over four years in new funding for ICE, you"Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and Tom Homan"will use it to fund a huge domestic army to round up four million people in the next three years, put them in "detention centers" and deport them."

#28 | Posted by THEBULL at 2025-07-15 11:09 PM | Reply

Joe Rogan: Nobody would have signed up' for Trump if they knew how he would use ICE (June 25, 2025)

Joe Rogan is a moron. EVERYONE with an IQ higher than room temperature saw this coming.

#29 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2025-07-15 11:17 PM | Reply

Rogaine Joe is almost as big of a fucking mouth breathing imbecile as Jeff.

#30 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2025-07-15 11:45 PM | Reply