How ICE’s forced disappearances are state sponsored terrorism and have created a national police force.

Uniforms, no uniforms, many different badges, some without badges…this is intentional, and it is state sponsored terrorism.

I believe the US government is engaging in state sponsored terrorism not just against the undocumented but against its own citizens and residents.

18 USC 2331 defines domestic terrorism as:

(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B) appear to be intended—

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;

(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or

(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and

(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States

This means the US government cannot commit domestic terrorism by definition because the victimization of the government itself is built into their legal definition. The government’s definition of domestic terrorism does not apply here.

LegalDictionary.net has several definitions for different types of terrorism. From a broad perspective covering all types of terrorism, they define it as:

In its most basic definition, the term terrorism refers to any act that that is perpetrated for the purpose of causing terror. There is no universal definition as to just what acts are considered terrorism, but it is commonly considered to be an action that causes fear and/or harm for a political, ideological, religious, or economic objective. Acts of terrorism deliberately target civilians, neutral military personnel, or other non-combatants, with blatant disregard for their safety.

LegalDictionary.net.

Noted on LegalDictionary.net is that the FBI defines domestic terrorism as 18 USC 2331 defines it. This is important because if federal law enforcement cannot define or see terrorism that is committed by the government and government actors, then they cannot be charged, prosecuted or found guilty of committing terrorism. Each act becomes its own individual case without seeing the bigger picture.

And if you can’t see the bigger picture, you cannot discuss it and find solutions.

LegalDictionary.net defines state terrorism as:

State terrorism is a violent act perpetrated by an existing government. Commonly, state terrorism involves a conflict with another country, or involves the government’s goal of controlling the population. State terrorism is one of the oldest forms of terrorism, dating back to the 1793 French Revolution.

I prefer the term state sponsored terrorism as it encompasses the non-governmental organizations, private companies and corporations who participate in this type of terrorism. By defining the actions of this administration as state sponsored terrorism, we can see the bigger picture - President Trump has declared war on his own country. From tanking the stock market to corrupting the Supreme Court to taking away women’s rights, to violently forcibly disappearing immigrants with rights to be residents and shipping them to a foreign torture prison with no due process, to running extortion rackets through the government, pardons and everything else…

For the Trump cabal, one of the most effective ways to create fear is by using state sponsored violence in the open. They want you to see this violence and be afraid, and you should be afraid. Every single day for the last month, I get responses to my posts about the forced disappearances and if they are actual police. Yes, they are. What Americans do not understand is that the federal government has used 9/11 to stoke our racism and fear. (I say that collectively as a nation; I am not saying we all bear the same responsibility.)

In the name of defending our borders from people seeking the right to claim asylum, we in general have allowed both republicans and democrats to build a giant national police force that encompasses over 130 agencies with law enforcement officers in their employ and the state and local law enforcement agencies. After 9/11, fascists within our high ranks of federal executive positions pushed for the surveillance and militarization of our border and took it to heights of cruelty many still cannot believe, do not want to believe. Americans in general were fine with it, as long as it did not affect them personally.

Our federal immigration agencies began running programs that your local and state police are now heavily dependent on. Your sheriff and police department are likely taking money from various DHS, CBP and ICE programs at this very moment. They are taking so much money they cannot survive without these programs. Additionally, DHS and the immigration agencies constantly offer your local cops joint task force operations to learn how to police the DHS immigration way: no warrants, violence, no due process, fast disappearances. Then there are the multitude of ex immigration agents who leave their agencies to then set up training programs. When the old supervisor in charge of San Diego Sector Border Patrol Training retired, she opened a company to teach Border Patrol training to other agencies.

This means every cop is DHS, ICE, CBP and Border Patrol influenced. They are groomed, trained and bought by the feds.

Now take into account that there are many videos and pictures of these forced disappearance gangs wearing all sorts of different uniforms, many with no uniforms, different badges, some in shorts and sneakers, others in baggy jeans with ill fitting vests. In all the videos and posts, people are responding with, “How do we know they are really cops?”

You don’t, and that is part of the operation.

DHS is sending federal agents from many different agencies out to perform violent forced disappearances and refuses to address this question. Think about it: if they wanted them in uniform, they would be in uniform. Even though ICE does not officially have a uniform like Border Patrol and CBP, they do have jackets with ICE and badges. Additionally, these arrests do not have to be out in the open. There are many ways with which to deal with immigration violations other than a SWAT-type of response. This is performative violence. Obviously, DHS wants you to not be able to discern the legal authority of their agents.

DHS does not care that this undoubtedly puts their agents in danger. This tells me it is intentional, and meant to create fear. Why would they want to create fear? To be able to create a national authoritarian police force. One that can disappear migrants as well as opposition. This is state sponsored terrorism, but the FBI cannot define it or see it because it does not recognize the US as a perpetrator of terrorism according to their own definition.

The official stance is there is no state sponsored terrorism when the US government does it.