By now, we have all heard the phrase, “obeying in advance.” I initially heard this as the heading of the first chapter of Tim Snyder’s famous book, “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.” According to Snyder, when Germany invaded Russia in 1941, the SS soldiers took it upon themselves, without being ordered, to initiate the mass killings of Jews. “They guessed what their superiors wanted and demonstrated what was possible” (pages 19-20).
We are seeing the beginnings of something almost as appalling, with the heartless roundup of immigrants — many without proof of guilt for any crime — by agents representing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under the orders of Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, ICE is rounding up these people — including men, women and children as young as 2 — in the most callous fashion. These enforcers, usually heavily armed and masked, refuse to identify themselves or even present criminal warrants. Often, they seem to identify their “victims” only by skin color.
Knowing how loyal Miller is to Trump, it is only natural to assume that he is doing exactly what he thinks his boss wants him to do.
We can expect that these roundups and this cruelty will only get worse now that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” has passed. ICE is being funded such that it will become, in the words of one commentator, the largest law enforcement agency in the country, and Miller will now have enough money to build a virtual “archipelago of concentration camps,” to use the words of Tim Snyder.
The most pressing question is, how far will Trump let Miller go? At some point, Trump must realize that, to anyone paying attention, it’s obvious that Miller’s horrific sadism is really a window into his own.
Frederick Longacre
Hockessin
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