Speaking of the important legal principle that is "because I said so," Trump's Border Czar and noted Fury Road villain Tom Homan recently responded to questions about who determines if a person targeted for deportation is in a gang and how do they do so, with almost literally - "just trust us bro."

https://truthout.org/articles/trump-border-czar-ices-word-is-enough-to-prove-someones-a-gang-member/

Trump Border Czar: ICE’s Word Is Enough to Prove Someone’s a Gang Member

"Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s so-called “border czar,” has said that nothing more than the word of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent is needed to prove that a noncitizen living in the U.S. is a gang member, and thus subject to deportation.

Trump signed an executive order earlier this year asserting his right to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport immigrants living in the U.S. if they are deemed by the administration to be violent gang members. Hundreds of migrants have been deported on that basis, even though an analysis by CBS News found that nearly three-quarters of the people sent to a prison in El Salvador had no criminal record at all.

Those who have been deported have largely been denied their due process rights, which would have allowed them to argue against being indiscriminately labeled as a gang member by the administration.

In an interview with Axios that was published on Tuesday, Homan appeared to dismiss those concerns, claiming, without evidence, that even those with no criminal history are members of violent gangs."

My favorite Trump regime stories are the ones where you can tell the government is lying, but even if they weren't their excuses wouldn't matter anyway.

Homan wants us to believe that ICE is doing "deep dive" investigative work into whether or not migrants targeted as part of a human trafficking scheme to ship people to a slave labor prison in El Salvador, are members of a gang; which would be pretty implausible if you looked at how fast they're finding and deporting people, but becomes almost laughable when the regime is openly admitting it just deported an innocent man who had a judge's order protecting him from deportation a little over a week ago. I'm sure there were a crack squads of Gestapo investigators working around the clock on making sure these were gang members when they deported *checks notes* the soccer player with a Real Madrid tattoo, and the guy with an autistic brother and an autism acceptance movement tattoo as well; gimme a break. The entire line of argument was also rendered irrelevant however when Homan admitted, in the same interview, that it's just vibes:

"But ultimately, he said, if an ICE agent suspected someone of being in a gang, that was all the evidence needed.

“ICE is the principal arbiter” in making these determinations, Homan said."

Of course, all of this ignores that no matter how objectionable we may find gangs in our society, it's not actually illegal to be in a gang - which will be news to racist police officers all over the country, but isn't to the District Attorneys who prosecute actual crimes. Furthermore, let us remember that these human trafficking flights (people are being kidnapped, transported to a slave labor prison, and money is changing hands) are themselves being justified by a wholly made up invasion, by a gang with reportedly less than a thousand people in the United States, that is sekretly a terrorist arm of the Venezuelan government pretty much entirely because Trump said so in an executive order; nothing about this fascist shitshow is based on facts, evidence, or reality.

So, how ominous of a sign is it when the white nationalist government that's openly violating the US Constitution to facilitate fascist mass deportations, decides to declare thousands of immigrants legally dead for all intents and purposes? This week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem (aka Cracker Fascist Barbie) and acting Social Security commissioner (and gammon-y human thumb) Leland Dudek, got together and "terminated" the "financial lives" of 6,000 immigrants the regime claims are "convicted criminals and 'suspected terrorists,'" by moving their Social Security numbers into the agency's "death master file."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-social-security-immigrants

'Outrageous Abuse of Power': Trump Weaponizes Social Security for Deportation Spree

"The Trump administration this week reportedly classified thousands of immigrants living in the United States as dead in a Social Security database in an effort to force them out of the country, a scheme that was met with furious uproar from advocates and lawmakers.

By entering the names and Social Security numbers of roughly 6,000 immigrants into Social Security's "death master file," the administration has revoked their ability to legally work in the U.S. and receive benefits in a bid to get them to "self-deport," several news outlets reported Thursday.

"This is an outrageous abuse of power," Nancy Altman, president of the advocacy group Social Security Works, said in a statement. "It will not only create extreme hardship, but kill people. Imagine, in one Trump administration keystroke, losing your income, your health insurance, access to your bank account, your credit cards, your home, and more."

"If they get away with this, it would be no surprise if they then move on to marking their perceived enemies as dead—citizens and non-citizens alike," Altman added. "This is a total misuse of the dedicated revenue that workers contribute to Social Security, with every paycheck. Though Trump claimed he wouldn't cut benefits, he essentially is by diverting dedicated monies from their intended purpose of paying Social Security benefits to the immoral purpose of maliciously ruining lives."

First off let me start by noting that some, if not the majority of folks targeted by the Trump regime for financial termination are people with valid social security numbers, and while undocumented immigrants can pay into Social Security, they can't collect even when they reach retirement age anyway; so this has nothing to do with migrants stealing benefits, or preventing fraud. Additionally it should be pointed out that while we're being assured that those targeted are all "convicted criminals and "suspected terrorists," our source for that is the very same administration trying to deport student visa holders for traffic tickets and telling you anti-Tesla protestors are "domestic terrorists," so who the fuck knows what that assertion even means anyway; it appears that at least some of the targets are simply people "who were allowed to enter and remain temporarily in the United States under programs instituted by the US president’s predecessor Joe Biden" according to The Guardian.

Finally, it should be understood that this is about a lot more than collecting Social Security benefits in your late 60's; in modern American society you typically need a Social Security number to open a bank account, get a credit card, rent an apartment, obtain health insurance, access car loans, and so forth, so when Dudek says they're trying to "exterminate" the "financial lives" of targeted immigrants, he's only partially employing a metaphor here; the opponents of the plan calling this "digital murder" are absolutely right to do so. This is definitely going to destroy lives and get people killed, and as the article notes the regime is reserving the right to expand the list of targets to "others in the country without authorization," which sounds rather ominous when we're talking about a government that's taken to having Marco Rubio instantly revoke visas and legal status for student protestors before ICE kidnaps them.

All of which means that even if the regime's actions are taken in the best possible light, this is fascist bullshit designed to push a nativist, white nationalist agenda while harming folks the administration deems illegal primarily for their skin tone and place of birth. As both a target of the regime's ongoing anti-trans pogrom, and a student of history however, I can't help but notice an ominous déjà vu quality in all of this. Historically speaking, mass deportations have always lead to mass graves, and when a fascist regime declares you and folks like you legally dead, it's usually because they mean to eventually make that a literal reality.