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President Donald Trump recently classified “Antifa” as a terrorist organization. This despite the fact there is no statutory authority that enables the president to classify a domestic U.S. entity a “terrorist” organization.
“Antifa” is not an organization but rather a loose bundle of antifascist ideas, principles and perspectives embraced, I might add, by most Americans during World War II.
As there is no “Antifa” organization, the question then becomes, who is to be considered a member of “Antifa” and by whom? Trump has increasingly conflated Democrats and the “radical left,” presumably including those to be grouped under the heading of “Antifa.” Does that mean that all Democrats are now to be considered as “terrorists”? And if so, what of it?
One consequence is that civilians deemed “terrorists,” without any due process, can now be bombed by the U.S. military on orders of the president, as recently were three boatloads of Venezuelans. How soon before such behavior moves to U.S. soil against U.S. citizens?
Far fetched you might say. But remember that masked ICE agents working for the Trump administration are currently seizing people off the streets of U.S. towns and cities, without warrants, without identification, without justification except racial profiling. Some of those seized have proven to be U.S. citizens.
My understanding is that most citizens nabbed by ICE have been released once they were able to prove their citizenship. However, do we face a future where citizens detained by ICE will be held indefinitely, or worse, if they prove to be registered Democrats and thus deemed to be “terrorists”? Is this an absurd question? Human history suggests otherwise.
Michael McMillen
Harborside
