A border policy can be strict without being theatrical. What the United States is building now is something different: a system designed to make people feel that their legal status is always provisional, and that silence is the safest form of compliance.
free speech
Knowing Things Has Become a Political Problem
Anti-intellectualism is not new in America. What is new is that it has become official policy.
The Green Card Was Supposed to Mean Something
The detention of Mahmoud Khalil did not happen in a legal vacuum. It happened because the administration found a tool old enough and vague enough to make it possible. Every lawful immigrant in America should understand what that tool is.