How to pave a way to fascism legally?

After Donald Trump takes the office, many Americans begin to believe US is becoming a fascism country. Like many people on the other side, I didn’t believe it and thought fascism is very far away, given how good the US democracy generally is perceived, and, more importantly, given how the US constitution limits the power of the government at a fundamental level.

However, I changed my mind recently due to a couple of changes happening in US make me feeling nervous. I have to conclude that fascism is not even far away, it is possibly just a few steps away, most importantly, I find out it is even possibly allowed by law rather than just in my imagination!

Before I begin, I have to make this clear: This is not against Trump, I don’t even want to bring in any of my personal opinions on Trump as a factor for discussion here. If you feel this is against Trump, please replace “the president” in the following with another US president you dislike.

Let’s see how a sitting US president could possibly pave a legal way towards fascism.

To open the door, let’s start with a recent USCIS memo. This memo looks scary from a first look, I want to highlight the most important part that I need to continue:

In addition to aliens described in those subsections, the Executive Order and DHS Implementation Memorandum also prioritize removable aliens who, regardless of the basis for removal:

(a) Have been convicted of any criminal offense;

(b) Have been charged with any criminal offense that has not been resolved;

(c) Have committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense;

The clause (c) looks very scary, given it comes after (a) and (b), it implies USCIS doesn’t even need a criminal charge here, although I have to say how to prove “have committed” without a conviction and without a charge is mystery here. If we interpret it broadly, it could be literally anything because of no proof!

However, all what USCIS could do here is issuing a Notice To Appear, NTA, which is not bad even if you really received one. Because having to appear in an immigration court merely means the removal proceeding starts, without a reasonable justification, the immigration court judge will likely dismiss your case at your first appearance in court!

Is “have committed” to a criminal offense without a conviction and without even a charge reasonable? So far, still no, the immigration court still requires a conviction as a proof of any criminal offense, as in our common sense. It is the law! There is no change here, yet.

Then the next crucial question becomes: could this law possibly be changed by the administration of a US president?

I don’t know about immigration laws, but, from all what I know, it is possible, because the immigration court is under the executive branch, rather than as independent as the criminal court!! It is subjecct to executive orders from the US president or DOJ, and the current administration even tries to remove the due process from the immigration court at the border!

In my best guess, it needs a Congressional approval for a change of the immigration law, which could practically deter a malicious administration. In my worst guess, it only needs an executive order from the US president. Before knowing which case it is, we can just assume it is possible.

If this door opens, then fascism begins. The government then could start a malicious prosecution against you, with the need of a probable cause they gain the power to put literally any charge against you.

Of course, normally, a prosecution without a probable cause is very likely to be dismissed by a judge at preliminary hearing, or possibly rejected by a grand jury before charging, depending on the criminal procedure of your state. The whole point of a malicious prosecution is not even trying to go beyond preliminary hearing, it is merely to get you charged, period!

For preliminary hearing, you are already formally charged, it doesn’t matter even if it is dismissed immediately. For a grand jury, the good news is it happens before a formal charge or indictment, the bad news is “if a district attorney wanted, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich.” Why? Because you don’t even have an attorney to represent you in this case yet, only the prosecutor could be in the secret room with a grand jury, not even a judge, not even open to thepublic.

You are always a law-abiding citizen and will never commit to any crime? The point is never whether you commit it or not, it is how the government could prove! Not to mention you could be just showing up at a wrong time and in a wrong place. Here is what already happened. They were charged with a federal felony facing possibly 60 years in jail, but they were fortunately dismissed as we normally expected. Do you really want to put all your faith in your luck?

If the above immigration law were changed to consider a criminal charge without a conviction (like (2) in the USCIS memo) as reasonable, then the above malicious prosecution would be sufficient to put you into the deportation proceeding!

Now, you can still argue, you are a naturalized US citizen, not a green card holder or any visa holder, you don’t need to worry about. Yeah, but keep in mind that US citizenship law is under an immigration court too! If the due process at an immigration court could be changed, so could your US citizenship be revoked!!! I don’t know if it is different for US-born citizens, so I don’t want to discuss here.

Put them together, if all of my above assumptions were true, the following would be how to deport a (naturalized) US citizen that a sitting US president doesn’t like, for example, because you peacefully protest against him.

Although I am skeptical here too, as you can see there are not even many “if”’s above. It is possibly implementable by law.

So, you are not that far away from fascism, Americans.

If you are really scared, please calm down and consider doing something like donating to ACLU or whatever you think is relevant!

WAKE UP!