The Most Dangerous Thing Happening Right This Minute

We have entered the "Papers. Please" era

Here is what is going on in Donald Trump’s America:

On Tuesday, just before dawn, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter onto the rooftops of residential buildings in Chicago. They stormed an apartment building without warrants, splintered doors and yanked families from their beds. Naked children watched as agents dragged their parents into the hallway and zip-tied their hands. U.S. citizens were detained alongside immigrants, instructed to “wait until we look you up.” Hours later, the building’s residents were left shaken, humiliated, and terrified. One man, who later came home from work to find all his electronics and furniture missing, summed it up bluntly: “I feel defeated.”

“You could see people’s birth certificates, and papers thrown all over,” a witness later said. “Water was leaking into the hallway. It was wicked crazy.” An American citizen said agents broke down his door, zip-tied him, dragged him outside and left him there, tied up, for nearly three hours before releasing him. He told the media, “I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.”

This wasn’t a random or rogue operation. It was a glimpse into our new reality, created by the Supreme Court’s decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo less than a month ago. In that ruling — which was once again issued on the Court’s shadow docket — Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote that federal immigration officers can stop and briefly detain anyone they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in the country unlawfully. On paper, the opinion insists that “appearance alone” cannot justify a stop. But in practice, “reasonable suspicion” is a blank check — one that bends toward the biases of those enforcing it.

Here is where it gets really dangerous — for all of us, irrespective of our skin color, ethnicity or immigration status. Because the Court’s decision has not come in a vacuum but at a time when ICE has access to unprecedented information about every single one of us.