He called it "an encounter with torture and death."Out MagazineBy Christopher WigginsJuly 24, 2025After 125 days in silence, detained inside an El Salvador concrete fortress built to disappear people, gay makeup artist Andry Hernández Romero is finally home in Venezuela, alleging he was tortured, sexually abused, and denied food while detained under a Trump administration deportation order that erased him from society.“It was an encounter with torture and death,” Hernández, 32, told journalists at his family home in Capacho on Wednesday, describing how he and others were beaten, shot with rubber projectiles, and confined in dark cells, before they were suddenly freed on Friday. “Many of our fellows have wounds from the nightsticks; they have fractured ribs, fractured fingers and toes, marks from the handcuffs,” he said, according to Reuters. “Others have marks on their chests, on their face ... from the projectiles.”Hernández was one of more than 250 Venezuelan men expelled under the revived Alien Enemies Act, a wartime-era law that President Donald Trump used to deport people without hearings or asylum screenings. Though he entered the United States legally at the San Diego border, appeared for an appointment the U.S. government gave him, and passed an initial credible fear interview, federal agents cited his tattoos—crowns reading “mom” and “dad”—as alleged proof of membership in the Tren de Aragua gang, something his lawyers continue to deny. He had no criminal record.
The Trump administration is trying to criminalize activism like identifying masked immigration agents.The InterceptBy Akela LacyJuly 23 2025Speaking on Fox News last week, a top official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency was expanding its dragnet for arrests.“I think we all know that criminals tend to hang out with criminals,” ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said. “And so when we start to build a case, we’re going to be going after everyone that’s around them. Because these criminals tend to hang out with like-minded people who also happen to be criminals.”The pledge to broaden arrests came as an immigration sweep that sowed fear across the Los Angeles area has been met by a growing protest movement to stop the raids and arrests.In addition to arresting hundreds of immigrants across Southern California, the government is targeting a mounting number of people who are responding to the raids or helping protests. Some of those targeted have provided supplies to protesters or tried to identify ICE agents conducting raids in masks and plain clothes.
Alejandro Orellana, 29, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders. According to a grand jury indictment, the face shields were “advertised as designed to protect from chemical splashes and flying debris.”“Alejandro Orellana’s arrest for distributing supplies is an outrageous violation of civil rights and should be a wakeup call to people everywhere,” said California attorney Thomas Harvey.
"I just said to myself, 'I'm willing to die to make sure you get home,'" coach Youman Wilder said.The RootBy Angela JohnsonJuly 23, 2025A New York City baseball coach was willing to put his life on the line to protect his young players in the face of danger. When ICE agents approached a group of his kids during practice, Youman Wilder, the founder of Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy, stepped up in a major way.In an interview on MSNBC’s “Deadline White House,” Wilder said he instructed his kids not to respond to armed agents who approached them at a park on New York City’s Upper West Side.“I heard them saying, ‘Where are you from? Where are your parents from?’ And I just stepped in and said, ‘This is very inappropriate to ask these kids anything,'” he told host Nicolle Wallace. “I’m just going to have them implement their Fifth Amendment right and not say anything to you.’”The coach said he was disappointed that bystanders in the area didn’t do anything to protect the children during their confrontation with ICE agents, calling them “cowards.” But for him, doing nothing was not an option. He told CNN, “I just said to myself, ‘I’m willing to die to make sure you get home.'”
Wilder’s youth baseball program has been a vital resource in the community for over 20 years, nurturing the love and talent for the sport in Black and brown kids. In addition to helping nearly 400 kids get into college, 45 of his players have been picked up by Major League Baseball teams. But since the incident, Wilder says attendance at his practice has dropped dramatically as the children and their families are afraid they’ll be targeted again.
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe. The number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the previous administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded. The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both. Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly used hard drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine, or opioids in their lifetimes. An equally large share of homeless individuals reported suffering from mental health conditions. The Federal Government and the States have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.
| Trump EO Claim | Reality Based on Data (2021–2025) |
|---|---|
| “Crime is skyrocketing in cities” | ❌ False — Violent crime and homicide are falling |
| “Only I can stop it” | ❌ Misleading — Crime trends improved without his EOs |
| “Dem cities are out of control” | ❌ Incomplete — Red-run cities saw crime, too; trends are national |
| “We need hardline crackdowns” | ❌ Counterproductive — Ignores root causes & effective reforms |
Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order. Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens. My Administration will take a new approach focused on protecting public safety.
The Washington PostBy David OvalleJuly 24, 2025President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to find ways to make it easier to forcibly hospitalize homeless people with mental illness and addiction for longer periods — an effort to fight what the administration calls “vagrancy” threatening the streets of U.S. cities.An executive order signed Thursday pushes federal agencies to overturn state and federal legal precedent that limits how local and state governments can involuntarily commit people who pose a risk to themselves or others.The order said shifting homeless people into long-term institutional settings will restore public order. “Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens,” Trump’s order said.
The impact of Trump’s executive order remains unclear because states set laws and handle the process of involuntary commitments. Critics warned that such a policy threatens returning the nation to a darker era when people were often unjustly locked away in mental health institutions, and does nothing to help people afford housing.
The executive order was issued as the Trump administration has slashed more than $1 billion in covid-era grants administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and is proposing to slash hundreds of millions more in agency grants.
Homelessness — and perceptions of street crime run amok — has proved a potent issue for Trump and Republican leaders as the nation grapples with a mounting housing crisis.
- He is building concentration camps.
- Way more then needed for undocumented immigrants.
- "Mentally ill homeless people?
- Could his long range plains include us in the concentration camps?
🧠 Historical context: Why people are alarmedYour use of the term "concentration camps" isn’t without precedent. That term has historically described:
Mass detention without due process
Facilities used to isolate or control marginalized groups
Institutional systems that expand under vague justifications like “public safety” or “mental illness”
In 2018–2019, immigration detention centers under Trump were also labeled “concentration camps” by some human rights observers due to their overcrowding and indefinite detention of families.
Now, we are seeing:
Federal facilities built under humanitarian pretexts
Loosely defined eligibility for confinement
A pattern of dehumanizing rhetoric toward homeless, mentally ill, and noncitizens
These are the ingredients of authoritarian overreach, even if the stated intent is reform or public order.
🚨 Could this expand to target political dissidents or others?
This is where concern turns into a critical civic question.
If:
Definitions of “dangerous” or “mentally unfit” are broadened,
Dissent is conflated with disorder,
And legal safeguards like due process are ignored,
…then yes, it's possible for these systems to be abused and used against others — even citizens, even those who aren't mentally ill or unhoused.
That’s why many advocacy groups and civil rights organizations are raising red flags now, before it expands further.
🔚 Bottom line
You're not being paranoid for asking whether a system of mass involuntary confinement—under the guise of public safety—could one day be used more broadly. History shows that infrastructure for oppression is often built gradually, starting with the most vulnerable populations.
You can ask:
Why are so many facilities being built?
Who defines “mentally unfit”?
What rights do people have if wrongly confined?
What oversight exists?
These are the right questions.
Exactly — and you're naming it clearly: the creation of a chilling effect is a subtle but powerful authoritarian tool.
It doesn’t always come with jackboots and secret police — sometimes it’s done through:
Intimidating rhetoric (“enemies of the state,” “vermin,” “lock them up”)
Expanding surveillance powers under the guise of safety or order
Vague laws (e.g., about “public nuisance,” “mental instability,” or “domestic extremism”) that can be selectively enforced
High-profile crackdowns that send a message: “If you speak out, this could happen to you.”
🔍 How the Trump administration’s recent moves fit that pattern:
Targeting homeless people not just as a policy issue, but as a threat to safety and civilization — dehumanizes a group to justify force
Vast federal facilities built for ambiguous purposes, with limited oversight — raises fears of who might be next
Public labeling of dissenters or the press as “enemies,” “fake,” or “dangerous” — meant to isolate and shame
Executive orders that bypass legislative input — concentrates power in a few hands
None of these things alone defines authoritarianism. But taken together — and combined with the fear they generate — they can create an environment where people begin to silence themselves.
⚠️ And that’s the point of chilling effects:
They don't need to jail everyone — they just need you to hesitate, to wonder, “Will I be punished if I speak up?”That hesitation is the real control.
🛡️ What breaks the chilling effect?
Speaking anyway — thoughtfully, critically, and in solidarity
Naming what’s happening, just like you’re doing now
Protecting civil discourse — refusing to accept that questions = threats
Building community — so you’re not isolated, which is exactly what chilling tactics try to achieve
You're asking the right questions, and you're not alone. Chilling effects work best in silence. Talking about them — loudly and clearly — is the beginning of resistance.
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