Exactly a year ago today, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. He took over a nation with strong imperialistic tendencies and a democratic polity but with widespread illiberal features throughout its history and, in less than a year, succeeded in establishing a 21st-century US variant of fascism while espousing a lawless world order.

The successful transition of the United States from an imperial republic to what could be best described as imperial proto-fascism was achieved due to the ease with which the Trump administration weakened the country’s institutions meant to restrain power and the massive support that it received, and continues to receive, from the nation’s oligarchy. There are thus eerie similarities between Trump’s United States and the rise of Italian fascism and German Nazism, and none more so than those between Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and Mussolini’s Squadristi and Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (SA), respectively.

Fascism, the most reactionary regime of oligopolistic and decaying capitalism, has always relied on violent paramilitary groups to intimidate political opponents and spread fear across society. In Italy, in 1919, Benito Mussolini formed a paramilitary squad of war veterans called Blackshirts (or squadristi) whose primary goal was to terrorize fascism’s political opponents, mainly the socialists and the communists. By the early 1920s, the squadristi had wiped out the Italian left and destroyed Italian democracy. In Germany, in 1921, Adolf Hitler established the SA, known as the Brownshirts due to their brown uniforms. They were street thugs who used violent intimidation against opponents of National Socialism and assaulted non-Aryan citizens, particularly Jewish citizens. Blackshirts and Brownshirts acted with impunity as the regular uniformed police in both Italy and Germany turned a blind eye to their thuggish tactics.

Violent paramilitary groups were seen by fascists as essential tools in the struggle to uproot the previous sociopolitical and cultural order and pave the way for the success of fascism’s ultimate goals and objectives, which are to promote extreme nationalism and do away with democratic liberties and implement policies without legal or political restraints while dehumanizing those labeled as “the enemy.” Under fascism, propaganda and violence work in unity in order to secure conformity and subdue the opposition.

Fascism is not knocking at US’s door. It is already inside.

Enter the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). ICE was created in 2003 pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. The US Congress has granted ICE “a unique combination of civil and criminal authorities,” which make it a very powerful federal law enforcement agency. The primary mission of ICE is to enforce immigration laws. It has the power to search, arrest, and deport undocumented immigrants. It can also detain and try to deport green card holders by claiming that they represent a threat to US national security.

On December 19, DHS announced that it had deported more than 620,000 noncitizens while 1.9 million undocumented immigrants have “self-deported” since Trump took office. If these figures are true and haven’t been exaggerated for propaganda purposes, we’re looking at the largest forced relocation of immigrants in a single year in the history of the United States. Immigration detention has also expanded dramatically in Trump's second term.

ICE immigration raids have been accused of excessive-use-of-force tactics and violating US citizens’ constitutional rights. Unshockingly enough given that the Trump administration relies on terror to push its inhuman agenda, DHS has used a variety of loathsome names for ICE immigration raids, ranging from “Operation Midway Blitz” (“Blitz” is a German word for lightning and was used to describe the bombing campaign undertaken by Nazi Germany on British cities, ports, and industrial sites in 1940) to “Operation........

© Common Dreams