MSNBC Discovers ICE Stops Are Bad, Ignores 20 Years Of It
MSNBC's latest revelation on 'Kavanaugh stops'—where ICE agents detain individuals without clear legal basis—treats the issue as a novel concern. This convenient amnesia overlooks the fact that immigration and border enforcement have operated with broad, often legally dubious, powers for years, especially since 9/11. The Patriot Act, signed into law in October 2001, vastly expanded government
surveillance and detention authority, setting a precedent for such stops long before a certain Supreme Court Justice entered the lexicon. It's always fascinating when a problem becomes 'visible' only when it involves a politically opportune figure, rather than the everyday lives of marginalized communities. One might wonder where this critical scrutiny was during the Obama years, which saw record
deportations, or the Bush era, with its aggressive expansion of homeland security powers. Apparently, civil liberties only truly matter when they can be weaponized against a convenient political target, rather than as a consistent principle.