The idea that Trump was a beacon of freedom has always been a joke. But some of his defenders who aren’t totally immersed in the cult really ought to rethink their position if they are basing it on a belief that he was being persecuted by the Deep State. The Deep State was largely on his side, at least the worst of the police units were, and they did a lot of dirty work:
Taylor Levy couldn’t understand why she’d been held for hours by Customs and Border Protection officials when crossing back into El Paso, Texas, after getting dinner with friends in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in January 2019. And she didn’t know why she was being questioned by an agent who’d introduced himself as a counterterrorism specialist.
Levy was part of the legal team representing the father of a girl who’d died the previous month in the custody of the Border Patrol, which is part of CBP. “There was so much hate for immigration lawyers at that time,” she recalled. “I thought that somebody had put in an anonymous tip that I was a terrorist.”
The truth was more troubling. Newly released records show that Levy was swept up as part of a broader than previously known push by the administration of President Donald Trump to use the federal government’s expansive powers at the border to stop and question journalists, lawyers and activists.
The records reveal that Levy and attorney Héctor Ruiz were interrogated by members of CBP’s secretive Tactical Terrorism Response Team. The lawyers were suspected of “providing assistance” to the migrant caravan that was then the focus of significant attention by the administration and right-wing media. Officials speculated in later reports that immigration lawyers were seeking to profit by moving migrants through Mexico, and that “Antifa” may have been involved.
At some point we are going to have to grapple with the Pretty Big Lie, which was that Antifa is an organized leftwing army that colludes with terrorists to take over the country. It wasn’t just Trump who spread that BS. Bill Barr was apparently convinced of it as well. Combining that bogus threat with the so-called “caravan” actually led to right wing terrorist violence at the Tree of Life synagogue.