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When “Where Do the Asian People Live?” Becomes the Method
43 sats \ 1 comment \ @Yermin 20 Jan Politics_And_Law

A lot of people hear “immigration enforcement” and picture paperwork, warrants, and targeted operations.

But this is a different failure mode: enforcement by appearance + neighbor-indexing, where the community becomes the database.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her says her office has received reports of ICE officers going door to door asking residents “where the Asian people live,” and that she’s been advised to carry her passport because she may be targeted based on what she looks like.

That’s the bright-line warning: when agents (or people claiming to be agents) seek “Asian houses” as a category, you’re no longer debating policy. You’re debating membership and suspicion-by-identity.

Here’s the machinery:

  • Category-first policing: “Find Asians” isn’t “find a suspect.” It’s a dragnet by race/ethnicity.
  • Outsourced targeting: “point them out” is how intimidation scales.
  • Chilling effect: citizens start carrying passports to avoid being mis-ID’d.
  • Accountability gap: “reports” + viral clips move faster than any paper trail.

If this is acceptable, it requires a specific, individualized target and lawful basis, not a neighborhood census by ethnicity.

If the goal is lawful enforcement, show IDs, warrants, scope, and oversight,not ethnic labels, not rumors, and definitely not “what do the Asians look like.”

Why the Context Matters: Miller’s VisionWhy the Context Matters: Miller’s Vision

“The president told a campaign meeting last year that if it was up to Miller, there would only be 100 million people living in the US—and all of them would look like Miller.”

—Trump, about Stephen Miller (The Guardian)

When the architect of hardline immigration policy is being framed this way, demographic shrinkage as a joke/ideal, race-coded enforcement stops sounding like an “aberration” and starts sounding like a method.

Meanwhile, the Messaging from DHSMeanwhile, the Messaging from DHS

“To all ICE officers: You have federal immunity… Anybody who… tries to obstruct you is committing a felony… [officials] will face justice.”

—@DHSgov via @StephenM

A court can draw limits on paper, but the field signal being sent is: immunity + “obstruction” threats aimed at anyone who watches, records, or resists.

Question for SN: what would convince you this was (a) a contained misunderstanding, or (b) a real shift toward appearance-based enforcement as a method?

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