We are all Mahmoud Kahlil.
And Rumeysa Ozturk.
And Badar Khan Suri.
And Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
And Sergei and Marina, two Russians who fled to San Francisco after protesting Russia's war on Ukraine.
And the other hundreds of immigrants and asylum seekers the felonious regime has disappeared without due process.
It started with them because they were protesting, publishing, speaking out
It started with them because they're immigrants.
Once fascists identify a defenseless minority to persecute, more follow. There are always more defenseless minorities the strongman decides he must do without.
History tells us eventually everyone becomes a target of a despotic regime intent on eliminating its perceived enemies. It starts with one marginalized group, but most assume they're safe and ignore it. Then another group is targeted, and, again, most are relieved it isn't them and they just carry on with their lives. Another group is singled out. Another. And another. Until finally the regime comes for the rest, and no one is left to defend them.
The regime may have begun with the low-hanging fruit, the ones most Americans simply trying to navigate a chaotic economy and political landscape brought to us by bluster and fiat aren't paying much attention to, the ones easily dismissed as "un-American", other.
How long, though, until all of us have to wonder if that thing we said in passing to our next door neighbors about tariffs, or the signs in our yards supporting Democratic candidates, will get us branded and shipped off to an El Salvadorian gulag in the dead of night?
The answer is, probably sooner than we think.
This week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the convicted felon illegitimately occupying the Oval Office is exploring "legal" pathways to abduct and disappear U.S. citizens to El Salvador.
During a press briefing, Leavitt attempted to explain that "These would be heinous, violent criminals who have broken our nation's laws repeatedly. These are violent, repeat offenders on American streets."
That's the bait: fear of criminals (i.e., brown-skinned people).
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