1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

Throughout the past decade, the Trump administration has repeatedly made headlines for divisive rhetoric, especially in terms of “shithole” countries, and the “bad hombres” that come from them. Clearly, these nations are not- in their opinion- enviable or worthy of emulation. So why is it that the regime- *ahem* I mean, administration - constantly mirrors their historic judicial policies like the employment of death squads and extrajudicial executioners? Governments - specifically those in the southern hemisphere- have utilized state-backed paramilitary groups or covert forces to abduct and assassinate specific individuals, such as political rivals, union leaders, and journalists. During the Cold War, military dictatorships (notably in Argentina and Chile) systematically kidnapped, tortured, and "disappeared" tens of thousands of leftist activists and suspected subversives. Governments in places like El Salvador (during the civil war) and Guatemala tacitly or explicitly supported right-wing paramilitary death squads to eliminate political opponents without judicial recourse. Meanwhile, here in the United States, you routinely allow the president and his cronies to use their power to develop their own brute squads like ICE, Border Patrol, and their own little FBI factions to murder, arrest, detain, torture, and deny constitutional rights to: immigrants (both documented and undocumented), protesters, and dissenters. Trump has single-handedly created a system of abuse that rivals the worst of those “shithole” countries he claims to hate so much. And you have consistently allowed him to do it. Why is that? Asking for a nation.