Immigrants alleged to be gang members rendered by the Trump administration into a Salvadoran prison were denied due process and included numerous cases of innocent people with no gang ties.

While these episodes have so far targeted immigrants through the use and abuse of the legal system, they harbor a warning of violence that barely lurks under all of Trump’s other threats.

“We are a stone’s throw away from the jailing of citizens, including the jailing of attorneys,” said Nora Ahmed, legal director of ACLU-Louisiana.

The Muscles That Haven’t Been Flexed Yet
Despite Trump’s fast-moving effort to convert the U.S. into an illiberal autocracy, the outcome has not been decided ― yet. There still exists, at least theoretically, a strong and powerful opposition that could stop and reverse this before it takes hold.

“The U.S. differs in that we have a much more muscular opposition than any of the countries that have faced this challenge,” Levitsky said. “We have a well organized, united, well-financed, electorally viable opposition. We have a very big, very wealthy, very diverse private sector. We have a big civil society. We have all of the muscle to resist Trump. That muscle hasn’t been flexed yet. The startling thing is how passive the resistance has been.”

What would be needed is collective action across civil society institutions and the opposition Democrats.

The acquiescence of law firms and universities, and the refusal of Democrats to deploy hardball tactics to slow Trump’s march has fueled the sense that the autocratic turn is inevitable. But resistance has emerged in some pockets, and it’s growing.

“If you look at people who have resisted these autocratic legal developments, there has been a combination of strong collective action ― with strong action by the legal profession and by the judiciary,” Cummings said, pointing to Brazil as an example where an effort to impose autocracy was defeated.

Three law firms targeted by Trump ― Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, and Jenner & Block ― challenged his orders in court and won temporary restraining orders on all of them. Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber signaled that the university will stand up for itself in an interview with Bloomberg, while the school also readied itself financially by selling $320 million in taxable bonds, which could help it absorb any loss in federal grant funding. Numerous law school deans and professors have put out letters denouncing the administration’s efforts to cow the legal profession. And some congressional Democrats, including Sens. Adam Schiff (Calif.) and Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) have begun to put holds on Trump nominees to block or slow their confirmation.