TÜRKİYE ORTA ASYA HABER KKUORDİNATÖRÜ

DÜNYA TÜRK HABER / WORLD TURKISH NEWS ICE GESTAPO TRUM "People need to understand this: ICE officers and Border Patrol officers don't need a probable reason to approach someone based on their physical appearance, briefly detain them, and question them." Tom Homan, Donald Trump's "border chief" The past doesn't repeat itself note for note. But there are rhymes. And the current rhymes are echoing loud and clear. Donald Trump has made it clear that the most important tool of his second-term plan is ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Mass deportations. Camps. Indefinite detention. No due process. This isn't speculation; it's happening. And if we want to understand the danger we face now, history offers us a ready lesson: Germany between 1933 and 1935. This was the period when newly appointed Chancellor Adolf Hitler began transforming a democratic republic into a totalitarian state. And the tool that helped him achieve this was the Gestapo. What was the Gestapo? The Gestapo, an abbreviation for Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police), was founded in 1933 by Hermann Göring and quickly incorporated into the SS under Heinrich Himmler. Its mission was to hunt down and eliminate "enemies of the state." The Gestapo was more than just a secret police force. It was an apparatus of surveillance and terror with unlimited power. It didn't need search warrants. It wasn't bound to the courts. It acted on suspicion. It tasked ordinary citizens with denouncing their neighbors. And most importantly, it served as an ideological enforcer targeting Jews, communists, trade unionists, LGBTQ+ individuals, and anyone who dared to oppose the Nazi regime. From 1933 to 1935, the Gestapo played a central role in consolidating Hitler's power. It implemented the Reichstag Fire Decree, suspending civil liberties. It carried out mass arrests. It normalized extrajudicial detention. And then he laid the groundwork for what would later become a concentration camp system. ICE in 2025: Echoes of the Past The federal government created ICE after the 9/11 attacks. The agency's stated mission is to protect the United States from international crimes and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety. But under Trump, ICE transformed into something far darker than an immigration enforcement agency: a symbol of cruelty and fear. Arrests in schools, near churches, in courthouses and hospitals. Separation of children from their parents. Unmarked vans detaining people from the street. Mass raids on farm workers. Negligence in detention facilities. No accountability. No fair trial. And now Trump promises to go even further. He has already vowed to round up millions of undocumented immigrants using the National Guard. His "big, beautiful bill" allocates an additional $75 billion in funding for ICE, including hiring 10,000 new detention officers. He spoke of deporting his political enemies. He used terms like "vermin" and "poison" to describe immigrants and dissidents. In this context, ICE is not just an institution. It is the power behind Trump's new authoritarianism. We have already seen how this manifests on the ground. In California and across the country, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has torn families apart by aggressively raiding homes, schools, health facilities, and workplaces. Legal residents, even US citizens, have been mistakenly or illegally detained. Some detainees have disappeared into the shadows of America's ever-growing network of immigrant prisons. One such facility, located in the Everglades and known as "Alcatraz the Crocodile," is compared to concentration camps due to its horrific conditions: spoiled food, lack of clean water, broken toilets, and medical neglect. Others have been transferred to foreign prisons, including a secret facility in El Salvador, where credible reports of torture have emerged. This is no longer a theoretical state of affairs. It is happening on American soil. And as Trump consolidates his power, this situation will only escalate. Consider Tom Homan's statement about people being detained "based solely on their physical appearance." In light of this information, let's examine both the similarities and (thankfully for now) the differences between Trump's ICE and Hitler's Gestapo. Key Similarities Between ICE and the Gestapo Unchecked Power: Under Trump, both the Gestapo and ICE operate outside traditional legal limitations. Arrest warrants? Judges? Rights? When it comes to "enemies," all are at will. Ideological Imposition: The Gestapo pursued political opposition. ICE under the Trump administration did the same. Fear and Surveillance: The Gestapo relied on denunciation and fear. Trump's ICE created a culture of fear where anyone who "appears to be undocumented" can be targeted. Dehumanization: The Nazis characterized their enemies as subhuman beings. Trump, on the other hand, calls immigrants animals and invaders.