I know that those Democratic consultants who insist the only way that Democrats can win is to find common ground with the worst people in the country might disapprove, but our party should probably do something about ICE whenever we win power back.

This might involve actually doing something to make the Supreme Court less of a FAC (Fascism Assistance Committee) because they are enthusiastic supporters of grabbing American citizens and holding them for no reason whatsoever. You might have remembered that Probable Teen Rapist and Beer Enthusiast Brett Kavanaugh offered the opinion on the 6-3 September decision that apparently gave the a-ok to racial profiling.

He said it was constitutionally permissible—and indeed “common sense”—to target people due to “apparent ethnicity” combined with other factors, such as speaking Spanish or being at a car wash or bus stop. Being stopped on such grounds is a minor inconvenience, wrote Kavanaugh; any questioning is “typically brief” and U.S. citizens and legal residents will “promptly go free.” Immigration lawyers and rights groups reacted with alarm to the ruling. The court “greenlit racial profiling,” said Jennifer Bade, an immigration attorney in Boston. “This effectively makes us a ‘show your papers’ nation where appearance and language is going to make everyone a suspect.”

This gave rise to the term Kavanaugh Stop, which is a scarlet letter on Our Brett’s forehead that he may or may not love because these people are, after all, what the kids refer to as “extremely fucked.” Like so much with the MAGA right, you never know if they are being serious, trolling us, or both, and what Kavanaugh said about the average ICE stop is impossible to ascertain either way.

In any event, what he is talking about rarely happens, and of course, much of the time the stops are not “excuse me, friend, can we pretty please see your papers.” They are brutal and violent, and often target people who are either American citizens, are here legally, or if undocumented, are not criminals. There are a lot of examples of this horror to choose from, but the Miami Herald had an example that caught my eye. It’s a story of a healthcare worker stopped by Federal Thugs in Key Largo, Florida.

It has all the hallmarks of a Kavanaugh stop. You got the person being physically assaulted despite following instructions, check. You got the person being a U.S. citizen, check. You got the agents outright lying about what happened, check. You have all the questionable constitutionality, check.

The part about the agents lying is more or less the We Don’t Talk About It Near Enough side of law enforcement, which is police lying so much it’s practically policy. I mean, the claims of her not cooperating fall apart when the video evidence is viewed, and if they are trying to make a claim that the person they stopped was some kind of danger, that doesn’t make the agents look very good. Especially when you consider the woman they stopped is barely five feet tall and weighs 89 pounds.

A lot of Americans suck at determining who a U.S. citizen is. In fact, having grown up in a small city with a healthy Puerto Rican population, I know from my hometown’s local media social pages that there are plenty of people who will argue vigorously that Puerto Ricans are not U.S. citizens. This is, of course, completely wrong.

But immigration officers and officials should have a good idea who the U.S. citizens are, unless that’s not their true goal. Based on this year, it is increasingly obvious that ICE is more of a secret police than immigration enforcement.

Another disturbing aspect of this story is that this stop is not the woman’s first. It’s her THIRD. And there is no reason to think this will be her last.

This truly is no way to run a democracy, and no matter what your view on immigration, it should be viewed as unacceptable. The Democratic Party should view it as unacceptable and put an end to it, even if that means expanding the Supreme Court to lessen the influence of justices who are actively anti-democratic, no matter how hard that might be.

The last word goes to the cast of the 2021 film version of West Side Story.