The Trust Tax

Immigration Enforcement at Schools and Courts Threatens Democracy Itself

This week, the Department of Homeland Security tossed its own “sensitive locations” guidance and rewrote the baseline. The White House moved first, promising to remove “millions.” DHS followed by stripping its guardrails. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped into the space that opened. School districts, court administrators, and city attorneys raced to warn their people, because once the floor gives way, the fall is fast. The script is old; only the signage changes. Swap the placard, keep the snare.

Declare a crisis. Reclassify a child as leverage. Shift enforcement from back corridors to the public square, then rename the square and sell the ad rights to fear. Equal protection and due process rest on places people can trust. When the courthouse threshold turns into a question mark, the civic compact begins to rot; it smells like disinfectant and panic, like stale coffee cooling on a metal bench. People learn the doorway labeled help is bait. The street rule travels f…