- A reign of terror against immigrants spread across the country. Immigration authorities have a green light to pick up anyone they know or suspect is without papers. People are being picked up outside their homes as they leave for work before daybreak, as they get off public transportation, as they pay traffic tickets. A woman waiting for emergency surgery at a Texas hospital was carted away by federal agents and put in a detention center. Trump promises much worse, on a much larger scale. On Tuesday, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security released 2 memos calling for a huge increase in the number of immigration agents; the deputizing of local law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration laws; and expanded use of “expedited removals,” a deportation procedure that skirts the court system.
- Federal and state authorities tore up and shut down the Standing Rock encampment in North Dakota. Native Americans and others waged a nearly yearlong battle to prevent the construction of an oil pipeline that will be disastrous for the environment and the people who live there. Trump says his order to close the encampment is in the “national interest”. The government’s attack on the courageous resisters at Standing Rock is a crime against the people that must be opposed by anyone with a conscience. In one swoop Trump and his fascist regime intensified the centuries old persecution of Native Americans, threw the doors wide open to unrestrained contamination of the environment, and unleashed military force on peaceful demonstrators.
- On February 22, Trump’s regime announced that it is ending federal instructions that acknowledged the right of transgender students to use bathrooms based on the gender they identify with. This is a significant, and dangerous, victory for the Christian Fascists who are a large component of Trump’s fascist cabal.
- On Friday, Trump delivered a blistering attack on the media before an enraged fascist mob. A few hours later his regime took the unprecedented step of barring several reporters from a press conference by his spokesman. An editor for the New York Times said “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.” Trump’s sustained assault on the press is an overtly fascist act of suppression. As the Call of Refuse Fascism states, “Fascism is not just a gross combination of horrific reactionary policies. It is a qualitative change in how society is governed. What is crucial to understand is that once in power fascism essentially eliminates traditional democratic rights.
These nightmares are not isolated episodes. They represent the assaults of a regime that has achieved relative stability, and is advancing rapidly on that basis. The Trump/Pence Regime is working to impose fascism. It must be driven from power. The regime has achieved a relative stability, and things will be proceeding on that basis — of a fascist regime in power rapidly working to impose fascism. The Trump/Pence Regime must be driven from power.