As I wrote several times during the first Trump presidency, the obscene amount of power the US system of government affords the president (whomever he or she may be) over immigration, border policing, and counter-terrorism activities, has always meant that Donald Trump doesn't have to build a Gestapo; he already has a ready made cavalcade of security forces more or less directly under his control and ideologically aligned with vast portions of his xenophobic, nativist, and ultimately fascist agenda - including the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and the CBP. This direct control and ideological alignment in turn, goes a long way towards explaining why the Trump regime is targeting migrants, foreign visitors legally inside the United States, and folks crossing the border, as a test laboratory for fascist ideological policing policies you can bet your ass Trump intends to roll out against the rest of America if nobody stops him from doing so by whatever methods are necessary.

Take for example this recent story of a French researcher who was denied entry to the US, threatened with federal charges, and then expelled from the country for messages on his phone to friends and colleagues in which he was critical of the Trump administration's drastic cuts to science research funding:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/trump-musk-french-scientist-detained

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found

"France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration.

“I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added."

Naturally, you're probably thinking "criticizing Trump's shortsighted budget policies and Elon Musk's hard on for destroying any scientific research capabilities he and his tech fascist buddies don't own isn't a crime, and doesn't represent a danger to American security" and you're absolutely right. Unfortunately due to America's twin historical freak outs about "communist spies" and "terrorists" the fact is that American border authorities have already been conducting ideological screening at the borders and turning away folks who share benign opinions with millions of Americans under the guise of "keeping us safe," for decades. What's new here under the Trump regime, is the argument that thinking Der Führer and Elon Musk are idiots, is now being treated as prima facie evidence that someone, even a scientist here for a scientific conference, is a danger to the national security of the United States. In other words, what Trump's border Gestapo is doing here is *probably* legal, but it's still fascist; which is part of why I keep reminding you that America has been embracing fascist ideology and building a fascist police state for far longer than Donald Trump has been involved in politics.

Even more disturbing however, is the news that the FBI was called in to investigate the researcher and charges were considered; again, for criticizing Donald Trump and Elon Musk's quest to gut scientific research funding.

"Another AFP source said that US authorities accused the French researcher of “hateful and conspiratorial messages”. He was reportedly also informed of an FBI investigation, but told that “charges were dropped” before being expelled."

As note above, the researcher was told that the "charges were dropped," but it says a lot about the FBI under the Trump regime that the US government was actively looking for a way to turn private conversations critical of Trump into a criminal offense in the first place. Right now there are probably more than a hundred million Americans expressing critical opinions of Trump, Musk, and the Pork Reich regime; which is a rather ominous thought when you remember that the Trump administration is already manufacturing consent to apply this kind of ideological policing domestically under the guise of opposing "terrorism" and protecting public safety.