The debate over immigration is working out perfectly for the deep state. Donald Trump is calling on the CIA and the FBI to “get involved” in domestic policing. At he same time, MAGA conservatives are begging the US government to impose a vast new surveillance state on Americans in the name of stopping illegal aliens.
For at least four years, Russiagate hysteria has been used to promote more police statism, spying, military intervention, and government spending. Now, the incoming president Donald Trump will help the US regime seamlessly pivot from Russiagate hysteria to hysteria over Islamists and immigrants. The result will be the same: more growth in the federal police state and the further erosion of the Bill of Rights. This will be welcomed by MAGA conservatives who weeks earlier claimed to be suspicious of federal power and opponents of federal spy and police agencies.
Trump’s Foreign Bogeymen and His Allies at the CIA
On Thursday, Trump posted on X/Twitter demanding that “The CIA must get involved, NOW, before it is too late,” presumably in reaction to the New Orleans New Years Eve massacre, which rightwing activists have declared to be an act of terrorism committed by an Islamist from an immigrant family. In the same post, Trump says “This is what happens when you have OPEN BORDERS,” tying the issue of immigration to terrorism, and then demanding that the CIA become more active in domestic spying.
Trump has already given a number of hints as to what will be used to justify the continued drumbeat for police statism under his second administration. Just prior to his post calling for an expanded CIA, Trump declared that “Radical Islamic Terrorism, and other forms of violent crime, will become so bad in America that it will become hard to even imagine or believe.” This is Trump’s version of the “communists under your bed” hysteria of the 1950s, which, of course was used to justify the growth of the American security state during the Cold war.
The Trump administration has already signaled its openness to a growing surveillance state through Trump’s chosen friends and alliances. For example, Trump’s Vice President, JD Vance is essentially bankrolled by Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir, a data mining firm thoroughly linked to the CIA. Thiel is a longtime advocate of a federal surveillance state, and now Trump proposes appointing Thiel’s protégé, Blake Masters, as head of the BATF.
All the evidence points to an incoming administration that is very comfortable with helping the deep state get bigger and more powerful. After all, during Trump’s first administration, Trump immediately betrayed his promise to make the six-decade-old JFK files public, instead siding with CIA and FBI bureaucrats. Trump apparently believes that the taxpayers still must not be allowed to view basic historical records from the days when your grandfather was still hoping to move up to middle management at Studebaker Corporation.
Moreover, during his first term, Trump issued an order giving more independence to the CIA, making it easier for the agency to conduct cyber attacks without oversight from the civilian government.
Who can be surprised that he’s now calling on the CIA to do more?
Using Immigration to Justify the Panopticon
From the regime’s perspective, it was a brilliant move when Trump tied together the topic of Islamic terrorism—used to fuel the runaway police state of the Bush years—to the topic of immigration. This new synergy will be excellent for further growing state power.
Indeed, it’s likely the regime can barely believe its good fortune on the immigration front. After years of subsidizing migrants with taxpayer dollars to balloon immigrant numbers, the regime will now be rewarded with vast new powers to “solve” the problem. Opponents of immigration will throw their support to deep state agencies while demanding a stronger surveillance state that supporters tell themselves will only ever be used against immigrants.
For example, back in November, Trump promised that, if reelected, “We will finally complete the Biometric Entry/Exit Visa Tracking System which we need desperately. It will be on land, sea, and air. We will have a proper tracking system.” Meanwhile, the US Office of Biometric Identity Management plans to “improve facial recognition technology” for children by collecting biometric data from immigrant children. This is all key to building the tools necessary for implementing nationwide AI surveillance tools.
For years, anti-immigration activists have been calling for vast new federal powers such as national identification cards and “E-verify,” so these new federal programs and powers are unlikely to meet any opposition from “America First” activists.
The incoming administration certainly has the connections necessary to make it all happen. Key to building the vast new databases justified by migrant control will be new AI tools developed by highly paid Silicon Valley tech bros like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. In September, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison happily reported that “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” It’s not mentioned if non-citizens will be on their best behavior too, but it’s clear that citizens are going to be targeted every bit as much as any immigrant.
In response to all this, some might say “well you can’t just let immigrants do whatever they want.” Assuming we agree with this sentiment, we can still see that history has made it quite clear that immigration can be suppressed quite effectively—as it was from the 1950s to the 1990s—without a federal surveillance state. A surveillance state is not necessary to end migrant welfare. A surveillance state is not necessary to deport violent migrants. Nor a surveillance state necessary to drastically cut down on border crossings with walls and fences.
Nonetheless, anti-immigration activists have been quite effectively duped by the federal regime which has gone to great lengths to drastically maximize immigration that would never be seen unless migrants were being actively rewarded with free cash upon entry. The huge taxpayer-funded surge in migrants has worked well to get conservatives calling for vast new federal powers. The federal government has provided free room and board for millions of migrants, torn down border barriers, and opposed state-level efforts at border control. Then, rather than focus on ending the subsidizes and controlling the physical border—strategies that worked fine for decades—Trump doubles down on building a biometric visa tracking system. Heads, the feds win. Tails, you lose.
Other supporters of the new ostensibly anti-immigrant police state may also say “well it’s inevitable, so we might as well use the spy state against immigrants.” Yet, this isn’t even true because the surveillance state is heavily dependent on federal taxpayer dollars and federal cooperation. The ersatz “entrepreneurs” like Thiel, Musk, Ellison, and others are all heavily subsidized by federal contracts and federal programs that continue to build partnerships between Silicon Valley, Langley, and the Pentagon. Without these nonstop subsidies—further fueled by ZIRP which funnels easy money to these politically favored industries—the AI panopticon would be years behind where it is now.
In truth, the surveillance state is where it is because conservatives have spent so many years demanding that it get bigger. Whether it’s in the name of anti-terrorism or anti-immigration, the result is the further shredding of our privacy and the Fourth Amendment in the name of fighting the latest foreign bogeyman. Trump is just the latest manifestation of the same police-state impulse we witnessed in the Bush years. Worse yet, the current MAGA crop will repeat their own version of what we heard during the Bush years: you’re either with the president, or you’re with the terrorists.”
Thanks in part to these conservative collaborators, the technocracy of total surveillance is coming. It will be wrapped in an American flag and proclaiming “America first.”
