From Making Sense…
What we are seeing in Minneapolis right now is horrendous, frightening, and heartbreaking. But it is not a surprise. Over the past year, the Trump administration has deliberately escalated immigration enforcement – expanding funding and capacity for ICE, normalising violent and racist rhetoric, and expanding legal support for immigration enforcement while stripping back oversight. On the ground, federal immigration agents have grown bolder and more aggressive.
Where we are now traces directly back to the very beginning of Trump’s second term. In this post I trace out the actions since January 2025, highlighting the key events that tell the story of how we ended up here.
Below is a chart of actions over the last year – I’ve logged almost 200 and so have only been able to label the most significant on the chart below (high resolution version). The full list, along with links to relevant news stories, can be accessed here.
Christina Pagel is Professor of Operational Research in Health Care at University College London, UK.
More content from this blog
- Did the Woman, Life, Freedom Protests Change Iran? Interview with Shadi Mokhtari – 1 March 2024
- Were the Muslim Arab Conquerors of the Seventh-Century Middle East Colonialists?, by Robert Hoyland – 17 April 2021
- Settler Colonialism and Israel/Palestine. Excerpt from a webinar with Lachlan McNamee and Arnon Degani – 14 July 2024
- The Argentinian Laboratory. Interview with Verónica Gago – 1 April 2025
- The International of the Far Right: Scandal in Jerusalem, by RAAR – 15 March 2025