Dear John,

Every authoritarian regime in history has had some version of a secret police force to enforce its will.

In East Germany, they called it the Stasi. In the Soviet Union, it was the Cheka and NKVD. Hitler had the Gestapo, the shah in Iran had SAVAK, and the Russian czars had the Okhrana.

And now, in Trump’s America, we’re seeing the construction of a similar paramilitary secret police force called ICE — and it may well be the final tipping point into a MAGA dictatorship.

Trump’s big, ugly budget megabill will give ICE more cops than the FBI, more jails than the federal Bureau of Prisons, and a larger budget than the militaries of most countries. Once the bill is fully implemented, nowhere in America will be safe from Trump’s secret police state.

Do I sound overly melodramatic? I don’t think so. The Supreme Court has given Trump the green light to break the law at will while crippling the ability of lower court judges to stop him.

The good news is that more and more Americans are turning on Trump. His net approval rating is down nearly 20 points since he was sworn in — and the team here at Inequality Media Civic Action is pushing out proven-effective viral videos every day to educate and persuade the public about the danger that we’re facing.

But with American democracy hanging by a thread, we must redouble our efforts immediately. That’s why I’m asking you to make a monthly donation to help educate the public and stop Trump’s assault on our democracy.

Trump’s big, ugly budget megabill delivers $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement. That’s on the scale of what the U.S. spends when we enter a war.

ICE will be able to add 10,000 agents to the 20,000 already on the streets. A fourfold increase in ICE’s detention budget could mean a quarter of a million people will be locked up. There’s no corresponding increase in funding for immigration courts, so people will be left to rot for God knows how long, waiting for a day in court that may never come.

Don’t fall for the Trump regime’s lie that these people are criminals. As of now, 71.7 percent of ICE detainees have no criminal record. Some have been hardworking members of their communities for decades.

Big Democratic cities will be hit hardest. In a recent social media post, Trump called on ICE officials to “expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.” Anyone who looks Latino or has a last name ending in “z” will be targeted.

And more of these agents will mask themselves to avoid being held responsible for their actions — an abuse of power commonly associated with Eastern Bloc police states. In fact, new reporting from The Intercept finds that even the lawyers representing ICE in court are hiding their names in immigration court.

The team at Inequality Media Civic Action is redoubling our efforts to educate the public and help mobilize the grassroots resistance we’re seeing in town hall meetings and protests around the country. To keep up our efforts, we’re counting on your help.

Will you make a monthly donation to help Inequality Media Civic Action educate the public and stop Trump’s assault on our democracy?

Thank you,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action