It’s a smart move on their part. They’re leaving anyway so you won’t encounter resistance, and as long as they’re on their way out you may as well get biometrics and DNA plus you have the intimidation factor to keep them from returning. If anything, it’s a more efficient and humane use of their resources, though you could argue inefficient ground operations that mop up limitless resources like a blood stanch could be the more moral route, a few cracked skulls aside.

Godwin’s Law is being stretched like Moore’s Law in this administration. In 2024 I was accused (not here) of hystericism when I observed that you could take any given Trump atump speech and replace every instance of the word “migrant” with “Jew” and it would have been indistinguishable from 1933. Kristallnacht is coming, I’m telling you, unless we push back. One of the unsung glories of the American system is federalism, in which there are quasi-independent sovereign government entities (the states) separate from the central regime. Our constitution (small-c) is more robust to weather the odd autocratic ruler than France, Britain, or most of Europe.