Radley Balko: New at The Watch: Trump wants to deport more people than the populations of NYC, Chicago, and L.A. combined. It would cost $1 trillion+, and require a force larger than the U.S. Army. It also can't be done. But that isn't the point. It's about giving his supporters the human suffering they crave.

New at The Watch: Trump wants to deport more people than the populations of NYC, Chicago, and L.A. combined. It would cost $1 trillion+, and require a force larger than the U.S. Army. It also can't be done. But that isn't the point. It's about giving his supporters the human suffering they crave.

Trump's deportation armyopen.substack.com The former president's vow to deport 15 million people is the cruelest, most illiberal, most openly authoritarian campaign promise in modern U.S. history. Oh, and it would also destroy the economy.

Meanwhile… bsky.app/profile/zeve...

The Trump Org sought to hire 170 foreign workers in 2023. All told, Donald Trump's businesses have looked to bring on at least 1,670 temporary foreign workers over the past 16 years. me, for @forbes.com

Trump Organization Ups Its Reliance On Foreign Workerswww.forbes.com Mar-a-Lago, two Trump golf clubs and a winery petitioned the Department of Homeland Security to bring on temporary foreign workers

One also wonders how many foreign intelligence service spies Trump has inadvertently hired, too. (Though obviously, most of these are just folks trying to earn a living.)

Deporting US citizens isn’t a theoretical concern either, there have been cases of it happening. Any kind of mass ramping up would inevitably sweep up more.

Does no one remember Born in East L.A.?

Who’s president of the United States? Uh that guy from Death Valley Days… John Wayne!

A classic

Deportation of Americans from the United States - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Imagine having to prove your citizenship

There's precedent for using a third party as a holding pen / prison for asylum seekers and immigrants in general. Just look at Australia. thebaffler.com/latest/out-o...

Out of Sight, Out of Our Minds | Ed Burmilathebaffler.com The powerless, quasi-stateless people in Australia’s island detention facilities have been exploited at every turn. They may be a model of where we’re headed.

Genocide Joe would never

Is that the best crap you got? Sorry for you if it is.

Did that help you have almost a full feeling for like a second and a half? If so, you're welcome.

📌

I think we need to stress, how if this vast order is enacted, it immediately puts everyone on it in fear. Which is, of course, the goal. Fascism *needs* every out group to be in terror, 24/7. We need a web series made NOW abt what it’s like to live in a Stalinesque purge time, teach the people.

Most of these undocumented people should have been amnestied years ago. The US needs a political party making the case for expanded legal immigration, but we don't have one of those.

And they’ll use that logistical impossibility as an excuse to develop internment camps. We learned nothing from history. Hitler had his round two after emerging from prison for his failed Beer Hall Putsch coup, Trump is plotting his now. Only saving grace is Trump is likely too old at this point.

That’s why I say the people campaigning to be Trump’s VP are hoping to be Putin to Trump’s Yeltsin.

More like hoping to be Trump’s Linda Yaccarino. Hanging their whole career on the wrong psychopath.

It’s really kind of bizarre she took that job where she’s basically a fluffer without the prestige or respect. She had a good well paying respected job before. I think she’s a true believer though many she just liked the job title.

Save you a click...the US has 8.7 million jobs opening and 6.5 looking for jobs. Taking another 5-11 million out of the workforce would decimate the economy and spike inflation.

So for those of you in the back, Nazi Germany also wanted to deport people. That didn't work so they built murder factories instead.

As always, the cruelty is the policy.

I’ve been beating this drum. It’s not resentment or economic anxiety or whatever the fuck. Its enjoyment of human suffering. Surprised that building a coliseum hasn’t been floated yet.

MAGA = Nazi filth Prove us wrong

Of course it's true, right down to the liberals enabling them. Capitalists gonna capital.

This is a good time to remind everyone that Hitler's first plan was to deport the Jews from Germany. Once they realized that was unfeasible, they reached the conclusion that there was only one final solution.

The repiblican base doesn’t care what thier representatives do, only what they say.

Remember "lock her up"? Didn't happen. "Build a wall"? A few miles of fence. "Drain the swamp"? Yeah, right. "Deport them all" is the same thing. His MAGA minions care more what he says than what he does. Obviously, or he would have zero chance of election.

There were - and still are - concentration camps for migrants on the border of Texas. So... yeah. There's that.

I don't think they are competent enough to achieve their goals at scale, but they are fanatical enough to try and fail, which will still cause excessive misery

also Biden is finishing the wall

Why can't Republicans be normal (enjoying overseas suffering done by American munitions)?

That point where you realize *some* folks were watching Hunger Games and Squid Game from a different perspective than your own... The same folks that interpreted "Avoid it LIKE THE PLAGUE" to actually mean "lick all the doorknobs to own the libs"

The only thing worse than being forced do the calculus of human suffering when you decide who to vote for is the consequences of making the wrong choice. Mr. Trump is measurably the wrong choice by a wide margin -- but math, as they say, is hard.

Once you start the machinery of mass arrests and arbitrary detention, you can't just turn it off. They know that and they want that

The first person Trump should deport is himself.

Oh, that's easy. Just conscript the entire Republican party. ALL of them. And then lock the door behind them. MWAH HAH HAH HAH! The looks on their faces will be epic! ... OK, I may or may not need some coffee right now.

this is a really great piece, thanks for writing it

America is close to becoming a tin pot African nation under one tyrant (albeit orange one). How is this happening in our generation? I thought we were the enlightened ones.

Nobody seems to mention what it wld do to the ag industry if they actually succeeded at this plan. And how the ag industry collapse wld impact food production, restaurant & grocery industries. By the looks of most of his supporters they cld experience some suffering of their own.

Not to mention what deporting 20M working aged adults would do to the economy. He truly is Putin’s Manchurian Candidate.

Thanks for sharing this! Any chance you could follow @ap.brid.gy? This will help your posts reach a wider audience on Mastodon & the social web. Folks over there would get a kick out of your posts. If you like this post, I’ll give you a boost & recommend you!

If he wants to create Weimar-like inflation, this is the way to do it. (Of course, though, he's lying again.)

Every political ideology sets something impossible as its goal. It keeps people identifying themselves with the discourse, invested. Think of the practicality of having a 'War on Terror' or anything which purports to make the world safe. Political discourse is poisoning us, destroying us.

Substack? Really?

Read as much as I could before getting triggered—upset. And courts-wise it’s even worse than what you describe because there’s no reason to think that the Roberts court—where party comes before law—would block anything described.

Oops. Better nationalize the US Army for domestic attacks.

Good essay, but it assume internees will get things like beds and toilets and not be left to die in the desert. Also you presume all cops and guardsmen will obey orders; many won't. And you don't account for resistance. Trump's death squads will find out what IEDs and house bombings are like.

It will not be possible, and that's when they will resort to more efficient means. Hello 1941 Poland.

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