As we approach the halfway mark in the federal administration’s first 100 days, power is being consolidated in the executive branch to accelerate the mass detention and deportation of migrants, target the very existence of trans people, criminalize pregnant people and abortion seekers, intensify the repression of anti-genocide, pro-Palestinian protest, and eviscerate federal institutions, programs, services, and funding, placing the survival of millions in the U.S. and around the world at risk.

The waves of criminalizing legislation, executive orders, and copaganda emanating from the White House, Congress, and state legislators and governors in the current moment are dizzying and overwhelming, to say the least. As many have pointed out, that is the point — to destabilize us, to sow fear, to secure compliance, and thus enable and justify the most blatant and violent seizures and abuses of power aimed at entrenching a white supremacist Christofascist authoritarian regime. 

The Laken Riley Act, which has now been signed into law, imposes mandatory detention, without possibility of bail, for any undocumented person (including DACA recipients, parents, or teenagers) who is accused of (including false accusations), arrested for, or admits to facts amounting to shoplifting and other theft-related offenses, assault on a police officer, or any offense that causes death or serious bodily injury.