Why ignoring 'Nazi' parallels enabled Trump to build his own Gestapo

"Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor helpless people are being dragged out of their homes [...] Families are torn apart; men, women and children are separated. Children come home from school to find their parents have disappeared." Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, 1943.

Historians rightly caution us to invoke Nazi comparisons with care to avoid cheapening the unique horrors of the Holocaust. Anne Frank's testimony does just that. Her words speak not to Nazism as a point in history, but to the broader essence of how fascist regimes make terror routine. Families are separated, neighbours disappear, entire communities learn to hide from the state on the basis of who they are, and those who speak out are crushed by the state.

This pattern is not confined to the German Nazi Party; fascism is not the property of Adolf Hitler, any one nation or, any one moment in history, and its capacity to take root anywhere is the most frightening truth of all.

How ICE has turned into Trump's modern day 'Gestapo'

On Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father were taken by ICE agents in their driveway. A school superintendent said the boy was led to his own door and told to knock, used as "bait." His older brother came home to find them gone. They are now in a Texas detention center, where undocumented planes have flown in with people in shackles, sometimes still in their work clothes.

Unfortunately, it gets worse. ICE have shot dead 3 U.S. Citizens so far this year, with victims Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti immediately dismissed as 'domestic terrorists' by the Trump administration despite no evidence to back up these claims. The bodycam footage of the agent who killed Good shows him shooting her in the face and yelling "fucking bitch" as her car slowed to a halt as she died. Pretti filmed ICE assault a women from close range, he was pepper sprayed, shot dead, and then ICE fired more shots into his lifeless body, bystander footage reveals.

This has all emerged in the context of President Trump deploying 3,000 ICE and other federal agents as part of an expanded immigration enforcement campaign in a city with one of the largest Somali‑American populations in the country. Trump has repeatedly used dehumanising language about Somalis, publicly calling Somali immigrants “garbage,” saying he does not want them in the U.S., and asserting they should “be out of here,” remarks that critics say target people on the basis of their nationality and ethnicity while falsely characterizing many as criminals

Despite the fact that U.S. citizens are not legally required to carry proof of citizenship or “show their papers” to federal immigration agents when going about their daily lives, the climate created by the administration’s rhetoric has effectively encouraged racial profiling on the ground. ICE has repeatedly stopped, detained, and even used force against up to 170 people in Minneapolis for looking Somali, Latinx, or otherwise non‑white. Put simply, human beings are being persecuted and intimidated for who they are, not what they have done.

For instance, a 20‑year‑old Somali‑American U.S. citizen was tackled, put in a headlock, and taken into custody while walking to lunch, repeatedly telling officers “I’m a citizen” and offering to show his passport before being released hours later. Another woman was detained for two days after being stopped in a parking lot, suffering a concussion and alleging racial slurs from agents before being released. Governors and city leaders have labelled these operations chaotic and racially motivated, documenting U.S. citizens, including Somali-Americans born in Minnesota, being zip‑tied, hauled into federal custody, and held until family members produced proof of citizenship.

What makes this terrifyingly alarming is that many residents feel compelled to carry passports or Real IDs at all times simply to avoid being swept into immigration enforcement, even though the law says they don't need to. In some neighborhoods, people now travel with ID's stay home to avoid ICE altogether our of fear their ID will be deemed fake. They now rely on white neighbors to run errands because they fear that showing up with their own identification will lead to detention or worse.

In summary, Minneapolis is bearing the brunt of some of the most basic tactics in the fascist playbook: divide communities through ultranationalist rhetoric and make them fear a totalitarian state. This granular case is important in showing the reality on the ground in Trump’s America, but this is just one area suffering under his regime.

Since he assumed high office for a second time in January 2025, Trump has used his ICE militia:

• Deport 400,000 people, 25% more than the year before, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
• Target non‑criminal immigrants: A notable share of those detained had no criminal convictions, indicating a departure from prior enforcement priorities focused on serious offenders. In mid‑2025, data showed that over 70 % of ICE detainees had no criminal record, and independent analyses indicate that the proportion of arrests of people with no criminal history grew substantially under Trump’s policies.
• Detain more and release less: Policy changes under the administration dramatically reduced the use of bond or parole, discretionary release options were curtailed, with releases from detention falling by more than 80 % by late 2025, leading to more people being held until deportation or removal hearings.
• Commit human rights abuses by detaining and deporting people to El Salvador, including U.S. citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was falsely sent despite having legal protections, highlighting the agency’s reckless disregard for due process.

The parallels between Anne Frank’s words and the actions of Trump’s regime are clear. For ethnic minorities, a simple encounter with a hostile state actor can upend lives: one minute they’re heading to work, promising their family they’ll be back, the next they’re wrestled to the floor, detained, brutalized, maybe deported, maybe worse. When exclusionary nationalism is organised, when scapegoating people based on “culture” or “citizenship” becomes routine, fascism doesn’t stay in the past; it becomes to the forefront once again. It embeds itself quietly, reshaping daily life and normalising the erosion of civil rights. It can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time.

See the signs.

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