Mass deportations will change us for decades
I saw first hand the impact of a fascist government in Iraq. It's bad.
Authors Note:
A version of this story appeared exactly a year ago when Project 2025 and Trump’s immigration plans first started gaining public attention. I decided to take another look at it and update it with what we know now about their threats.
They are telling us the plan
A year ago more details of the extremist Heritage Project led ‘Project 2025’ plan came to light through dogged reporting by the New York Times, Washington Post, Axios, MSNBC, an entirely too small list of other media. Now we are seeing the actual fruits of that labor and the plans are coming into focus.
While Trump denied connections to Project 2025 during the campaign, it’s clear now that was simply his usual gaslighting. His own ‘Agenda 47’ all but mirrors much of the 900-page book and we are now hearing the key pieces they will implement as early as Inauguration Day. One of the biggest early goals is his mass deportation plans.
The insane and draconian plans for immigration being developed by Stephen Miller, newly named ‘Border Czar’, Tom Homan, and Department of Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem to lead the largest crackdown on immigrants in history are coming to light. They are promising to sweep up and deport anywhere from 10-20 million immigrants based on which made up number they are currently using.
The plans coming out now include declaring a national emergency and mobilizing the United States military to to aid in the mass deportation efforts. This will likely be included in plans for unannounced workplace raids; deputizing local police and the military; building detention camps; and manipulating existing laws like the Insurrection Act and Title 42 to simply kick them out of the country.
Most disturbing to me at the moment are these plans to use military units to conduct raids against Americans or as guards of detention camps. There are laws that keep the military out of domestic law enforcement. But, we have to be honest, the President has wide power to circumvent them and put our service members to work in the United States.
The second and third order effects of using our military for this operation will be painful for years to come and that’s on top of the politicization we discussed previously through the firing of top generals for “wokeness.” Our military is made up of young people. Late Gen Z and now even Gen Alpha are joining the ranks. A generation with less conservative views. Will they join a force being used to raid American homes, deport millions, and be the strike force for an extremist President?
That’s a problem we will feel for decades to come.
What happens when the government is the “enemy?”
The other effect I think of often is a developing fear of our military and our government. What if your business competition calls the local Sheriff and says you are hiding illegal immigrants? What if they get tipped your basement renters are illegal? Will they approach it with caution or simply kick in the door at dawn?
It reminds me of a story I’ve told before about my own experience that seems more relevant than ever.
I don’t think we need to look 100 years back to Germany or Italy to find comparisons to what could happen under this draconian remaking of our military, government, and nation. Several million of us served in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and saw first-hand what life under a ruthless dictatorship might look like. I spent countless hours during my three tours talking to Iraqis about what life had been like for 35 years and the scars that experience left on their psyches and nation.
My first tour of three in Iraq was the initial invasion in March 2003 with the 101st Airborne where I served as the Operations Officer for a Blackhawk helicopter equipped general support aviation battalion. Once we arrived at Qayyarah West Airfield in southern Ninewa Province I fell into a side role as a civil affairs officer. This meant I was assisting local civilians and serving as our liaison to the wide swath of the farmland and villages outside our base.
I worked with a remarkable man named Dr. Mohammed who was a physician and the leader of his village. Since he spoke English, he was the man asked by his peers to serve as our connection. We developed a close friendship that lasted up until his assassination in 2011.
He was murdered in the clinic I helped build in his village. But that’s another story.
Dr. Mohammed and I spent countless hours talking. Usually over a lunch on giant platters on the floor of a mud hut building. One that stands out at this moment is one that occurred shortly after bombs started going off on the main highway in the summer of 2003. They were being planted by insurgents often in broad daylight and no one was reporting them.
Not seeing things
We didn’t get why no one would report them to us. One day I asked Mohammed how is it that no one sees the insurgents or reports them to us so we can stop it? His thoughtful reply is seared in my memory.
He said, “Major Wellman, you must understand that for 35 years under Saddam you learned NOT to see things. You learned that when the black SUV’s showed up at night next door and the family was gone the next day, you didn’t see it.”
“Under Saddam, NOT seeing things is how you stayed alive.”
I think of this now as I read about the outrageous plans unfolding. While many are focused on the camps and the devastation to the economy when millions of employees are yanked from the workforce, I was thinking about how this all will play out for average Americans. I think of the details based on how it worked in Saddam’s Iraq.
Fascism isn’t just the government
I heard many stories in Iraq as I spoke with civilians, took their claims for crimes against them by the former government, and just got to know them. One that sticks out is a local telling me how under Saddam if another village was being difficult or a family had land you wanted nearby the easiest solution was to call up the secret police and report them as being spies or disloyal.
The Army would raid their village, find anything suspicious, and arrest everyone, or destroy it. Then they could go right in and take over the empty space.
So, let’s look at what that looks like here. Perhaps someone owns a painting company. It’s a tough business and margins are thin. They’ve got a competitor they hate. Simply call up your local “Constitutional Sheriff,” ICE, Homeland Security, or CBP and let them know that your opponent is employing migrants. In comes the Army and scoops everyone up. Arrests the owner. Puts him out of business. Just like that. No more competition.
Even if it’s all fake. By the time it’s all sorted out half his employees have been thrown in the camps, computers taken, reputation destroyed, and that’s if they didn’t happen to have one guy that was illegal.
How about those noisy neighbors? Playing their Mexican music too loud. Having huge family gatherings all the time. Sure, they are all legal immigrants. They’ve been here for multiple generations but old Billy Bob, he doesn’t like “those kind of people.” Simply call up his buddy at that Sheriff’s department with his fresh certificate from Trump’s DHS as a ‘certified immigration enforcement agent of the United States Government.’
They raid the house. Tear it apart looking for “evidence” of fake papers or those secret hiding places where all of the “illegals” are hiding in the basement that they were tipped off about. They terrify the family. Find something else like drugs without a prescription or a gun they keep hidden for protection and end up getting arrested.
Old Billy Bob sits on his porch with his Bud Light laughing and enjoying the show.
I write this because I saw what happened after. I saw the scars left on a country.
If you don’t think that’s what is going to happen here in just a few months, you are in denial.
And as the old saying goes…denial isn’t just a river in Africa.
We have to fight
We must keep talking about these malevolent plans. We must organize against them. File lawsuits. Fund groups pushing back. Work as neighbors.
We must get back to work to ensure that Democrats are elected from top to bottom starting as soon as this February when local elections begin in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Illinois. This isn’t a time for us to simply roll over and bury our heads.
Democracy as we know it is in danger. We can’t just throw up our hands and say “that’s what they wanted!” I know it’s easy to blame the millions that voted for Trump or stayed home. But, I also already know that most of them had no idea what they were voting for. They simply bought the lies.
We can’t write them off. We can’t write off our democracy.
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This is true. And mild compared to the chaos and violence that I believe will ensue starting in January 2025. Destruction of our social safety net and anything that accumulates greater wealth for the already wealthy is the end game. And they just don’t care at all what happens to Joe American.
We are in for turbulent times. I am writing about the elections, creating songs about it too. This is frightening to know we will not be able to trust our neighbors