“Papers, Please”: The Road to Tyranny Is Paved With Bureaucratic Cruelty

Once a symbol of dystopian nightmares, these words now echo in schools, hospitals, and homes: targeting immigrants first, and the rest of us next…

Louise’s daily song today really touched me; let us know what you think in the comments:

People of a certain age will remember the old black-and-white movies, The Twilight Zone, and countless Cold War-era dramas set in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. In scene after chilling scene, people in uniform approach random pedestrians and bark, “Papers, please.”

Those who hesitate — who don’t have their documentation in order, who look “out of place,” or simply fail to comply fast enough — are dragged away. Vanished. Disappeared into the gulag or the prison camps, never to be seen again.

It was always framed as national security. Public order. Protecting the homeland. But what it really was, in both Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR, was authoritarianism dressed up as bureaucracy.

Republicans in the House have passed legislation requiring people to bring their passports to register to vote; increasingly Americans with brown skin are today carrying their citizenship papers, birth certificates, and even passports out of fear of a chance encounter with ICE.

Because it’s already started here: On his first day in office, Trump issued a directive requiring all non-citizens in the US — including those on visas and green card holders — to carry proof of their legal status at all times. Failure to comply will result in imprisonment.

This policy, part of Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” has sparked fears among civil rights groups that it could lead to racial profiling and wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens who may be unable to immediately prove their status.

As recently happened to Jose Hermosillo, who was held in a detention facility for undocumented immigrants for 10 days after simply asking an officer for directions.

It’s as if the Trump regime is taking a cue from those old movies, like they were templates for America’s future. After all, if you want to control a civilian population this is tried and true.

The Soviet Union’s internal passport system, introduced in 1932, became the backbone of state control over citizens. Those domestic passports — containing personal information and required for anyone over 16 — weren’t just identification but permission slips for existence itself. Without the proper stamps and approvals, citizens couldn’t access employment, housing, education, or even food rations. The system created a population dependent on state approval for their most basic needs.

During crackdowns like those following the 1968 Prague Spring, these identification systems became weapons allowing authorities to swiftly target, detain, and “disappear” political opponents under the guise of administrative violations. The message was clear: your papers aren’t just documentation; they’re the difference between freedom and vanishing into the system.

Another poignant example of this oppressive system was the “Green Ticket Roundup” on May 14, 1941, in Paris. Immigrant Jews received summonses from the Nazi-collaborating Vichy government printed on green paper, instructing them to report for a “status check.” Upon arrival, over 3,700 individuals were arrested and deported to death camps, marking one of the first mass arrests of Jews in France during World War II .​

A regime of fear, enforced by ID checks and compliance demands, that began with targeting outsiders — immigrants, ethnic minorities, refugees — and then, inevitably, turned inward toward its own citizens: starting with marginalized groups, political dissenters, even the merely inconvenient.

Today, in the United States, we are witnessing the early stages of this same playbook.

Donald Trump recently attacked the U.S. Supreme Court for temporarily blocking his administration’s attempt to summarily deport migrants without due process. He raged, “We cannot give everyone a trial,” signaling his belief that constitutional protections shouldn’t apply to undocumented people, or perhaps to anyone he deems unworthy.

This wasn’t a slip of the tongue. It was a direct statement of naked authoritarianism.

Across the country, stories are piling up of ICE arrests and detentions with no transparency, no due process, and no answers. A mother from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, was suddenly detained by ICE, leaving her children and family in a panic, not knowing where she had been taken or why. She had no criminal record, no apparent reason for the arrest, and is still missing.

In another case, the U.S. government detained a father of two under a highly questionable interpretation of immigration law, claiming he was involved with a gang despite a complete lack of evidence or criminal charges. The Center for Constitutional Rights called the detention illegal, noting it was based on racial profiling and guilt by association, not rule of law.

Even places of education are no longer safe. ICE agents reportedly detained a Harvard affiliate in what critics called a targeted enforcement action meant to intimidate immigrant students and faculty. In Los Angeles, ICE showed up in a public school district, triggering fear and outrage among parents and teachers alike.

What kind of country sends armed agents — not local police, but militarized agents of the federal government — into school communities to drag away parents or students?

A country rapidly sliding into fascism.

Trump and his allies claim this is about law and order. But when you strip people of their rights based solely on their immigration status — and create a culture where anyone who “looks” undocumented can be interrogated or detained without cause — you are not enforcing the law. You are weaponizing it.

Estimates suggest there are around 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the United States today. Trump has made it clear he sees the Black and brown people among this group as a political tool, not as people. He has floated mass deportation plans that would require enormous internment facilities and a paramilitary-style enforcement mechanism.

This is not idle talk; it is a blueprint for authoritarian control that will quickly expand beyond immigrants: He’s already said that he wants to be able to deport average US citizens who piss him off to the CECOT concentration camp in El Salvador.

Consider how quickly this can escalate. In Venezuela, for example, internal identification cards are linked to government food distribution and political loyalty. Those who criticized the regime or fail to demonstrate allegiance are routinely denied basic necessities and even health care.

This combination of surveillance, identification, and coercion has always been the hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and Trump’s is no different. This is an old story.

And let’s not forget how it begins: first by singling out the “outsiders,” then targeting the marginalized, and finally sweeping up anyone who dares resist. We saw it in the 1930s. We saw it in the 1950s. And now, disturbingly, we are seeing echoes of it today.

Axios reported this morning that the Trump administration is floating the idea of arresting US citizens who criticize their “anti-terrorism” policies (people who protest Israel’s Gaza policies at universities, and people who condemn Trump’s actions against immigrants) and deporting us to the same CECOT concentration camp in El Salvador:

“Trump administration officials are suggesting their immigration crackdown could expand to include deporting convicted U.S. citizens and charging anyone — not just immigrants — who criticizes Trump’s policies. …

"Some officials say U.S. citizens who criticize administration policies could be charged with crimes, based on the notion that they're aiding terrorists and criminals.

“‘You have to ask yourself, are they technically aiding and abetting them, because aiding and abetting criminals and terrorists is a crime,’ White House senior director for counterterrorism Seb Gorka said in an interview with Newsmax.

“Trump’s team also has questioned the legality of civic groups providing immigrants with ‘know your rights’ trainings on how to respond to federal agents. Border czar Tom Homan suggested that such seminars help people ‘evade law enforcement.’”

This is how it starts. Soon it could be policy, and anybody who protests or resists the Trump regime could end up disappeared.

The American public must resist the normalization of “papers, please” politics. We must reject the idea that entire populations can be stripped of rights simply because of how they look, where they were born, or what kind of documentation they carry.

Because once the machinery is built and the culture of silence takes hold, it doesn’t stop at the border. It never has.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Just this month, a family in Arizona reported that their grandmother, a legal permanent resident for over 30 years, was detained by ICE during a routine check-in. No explanation was given. No timeline for release. Just the bewildering silence of bureaucratic cruelty.

For the millions living in fear, and for all Americans who value liberty, the time to act is now:

— Contact your representatives and demand oversight hearings on ICE enforcement.
— Support legal aid organizations providing representation to detained immigrants.
— Document and report ICE activities in your community to civil liberties watchdogs.
— Show up for weekly protests.
— Participate in social media and other venues to get the word out.
— Send small donations ($5-$25) to politicians who show the courage to speak out or take action against the regime every time they do so; it’ll have far more impact than a call or postcard.

Remember: What happens to the most vulnerable among us eventually happens to us all.

History has taught us this lesson repeatedly. We ignore it at our peril.

The song that was inspired by this article is here.
My reading this article as an audio podcast is here.
My new book, The Hidden History of the American Dream, is now available.
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The website for my radio/TV program is here.