To say that the Trump regime is not fascistic (and we must include as part of the regime its Vaudeville sidekick the “Democratic Party”) is like saying, “There is no cat. There is only a furry animal that says meow, that likes fish, that has fuzzy paws, and that curls up in your lap.”

Enough of the excuses. The seizure and imprisonment of the American citizen Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez in Florida by ICE as an “unauthorized alien” was the crossing of the Rubicon that we had anticipated. The fact that he was released does not dilute the criminal nature of that political move.

The Trump administration claimed that it had the right to hold this man even though he had broken no laws and he was a US citizen.

The fact that he was released does not change the consequences of the action. The intention was to create a precedent for totalitarian rule that will be quickly followed by even more severe measures. That goal was fulfilled.

After the massive purge of military generals opposed to war with Iran over the last few weeks, and the other efforts to destroy the federal government from within and to transfer its authority to private intelligence firms, Space X, and other players, it is not surprising that the next step taken was to empower ICE, which now serves as the unaccountable enforcement branch of the Trump regime, to seize American citizens without warning and to imprison them without charges or due process.

We have no choice but to denounce this criminality and to prepare to take the next step of refusing to recognize the authority of these forces that falsely pose as the “government.”

The entire Trump administration is responsible. No law-abiding citizen can serve this regime or cooperate with it.

The Declaration of Independence empowers us as citizens; at this point we have no choice but to act.

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce the citizens under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.”

***

Florida Phoenix

Jackie Llanos

April 17, 2025

“U.S.-born man held for ICE under Florida’s new anti-immigration law

Leon judge says she was obliged to ignore his documented proof”

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen, was being held in the Leon County Jail Thursday, charged with illegally entering Florida as an “unauthorized alien” — even as a supporter waved his U.S. birth certificate in court.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested Lopez-Gomez after a traffic stop in which he was a passenger. The 20-year-old is set to remain in jail for the next 48 hours, waiting for federal immigration officials to pick him up despite his first-degree misdemeanor charge being dropped.

His mother, Sebastiana Gomez-Perez, burst into tears at the sight of her son, who appeared virtually for his first hearing at the Leon County Courthouse. She left the courtroom distraught because she could do nothing to help her son, who was born and lives in Grady County, Georgia.

“I wanted to tell them, ‘Where are you going to take him? He is from here,’” his mother told the Phoenix in Spanish moments after exiting the courtroom. “I felt immense helplessness because I couldn’t do anything, and I am desperate to get my son out of there.”

Click here to read the full article.

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This article was originally published on Fear No Evil.

Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

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