The Blueprint of the American Police State

With the „One Big Beautiful Bill“ passed yesterday in the US House of Representatives, Republicans are creating new legal, logistical, and financial foundations for an American police state.

Arbitrary arrests by partially masked, not clearly identified ICE teams are already documented reality: In Los Angeles in June, such units dragged dozens of people into minivans without arrest warrants, often based solely on their appearance. Internal directives even explicitly call on operatives to be „creative“ during arrests and to aggressively expand so-called collateral arrests – random arrests of uninvolved individuals. With the new budget, increased personnel, and legal blank check, it is therefore foreseeable that the number of such abuses will skyrocket in the coming years.

At the same time, the already world's largest US prison system is being drastically expanded. Around two million people are already incarcerated, disproportionately many of them people of color, often for minor offenses. The budget package doubles the number of ICE employees as well as ICE detention capacity to 116,000, making the agency the largest federal law enforcement entity – its detention budget now even exceeds that of the entire federal prison administration. Nearly 90 percent of the additional capacity is to be created in facilities owned by private corporations, which already operate the majority of the ICE system today and can now expect billions in profits.

In Europe too, conservative forces are increasingly shifting to the right, both rhetorically and politically. The shift in what can be said and the normalization of authoritarian fantasies are undeniable, for example within the CDU under Friedrich Merz. Right-wing narratives are being de-tabooed there, and neoliberal harshness is being mixed with national-conservative undertones and nuclear megalomania – a dangerous alliance of technocratic coldness, identity politics culture wars, and power-obsessed lack of principles. Night is falling over the West. The project of the Enlightenment – with its promise of freedom, equality, and empathy – has temporarily come to an end.

Yesterday, I heard parts of Hakeem Jeffries„ nearly nine-hour speech in the U.S. House of Representatives. In clear, powerful words, he called for a return to the principles of the American Declaration of Independence – to the “inalienable rights„ of every person, to resistance against tyranny, and to the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. Looking ahead to the work that lies before us, he quoted Martin Luther King Jr.: “If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." This is the work of love.

African American representatives gathered around Jeffries, affirming his speech with rhythmic cheers. The collective appearance arises from the ability acquired over centuries of oppression to counter greed, hatred, and vindictiveness with collective dignity, clarity, and determined resistance. It was not an individual speaking here, but a solidarity community.

Republicans responded with scorn and cynicism. While Trump's popularity in the general population is falling, his core support is becoming more radicalized. According to polls, about a quarter to a third of the US population supports him – the more brutal his policies, the greater the admiration. These people are driven by the idea of being able to humiliate and disenfranchise others with impunity. It is no longer about political positions, but about authoritarian temptation – and the pleasure of humiliation. A dynamic that has always led to disaster in history. It would be foolish to believe that Europe is immune to this.

There is no alternative to resisting all those who are working towards the authoritarian transformation of society – whatever guise they may hide behind. We know their names. It is a fight for the future of humanity – and for its soul. We know the abyss, and we know what is at stake.

But whatever we do, we have to keep moving forward.