Instead, the agreement, signed on March 7 by top DHS and Pentagon officials, says the departments agreed to use the Guantanamo base to detain migrants with final deportation orders who have “a nexus to a transnational criminal organization (TCO) or criminal drug activity.”

Officials defined “nexus” in broad terms. A nexus can be satisfied, the memo says, if migrants with final deportation orders are part of a transnational criminal group or if they paid one “to be smuggled into the United States.” The latter condition could be used to describe many of the migrants and asylum-seekers who have illegally crossed the U.S. southern border, as criminal groups in Mexico largely control the illicit movement of people and drugs there.

See, this is why I’m cynical about whether we can escape fascism. Because Trump is an idiot, a fascist yes but even that aspect ruled by his malignant narcissism. But he’s surrounded by people who know exactly how to manipulate the system in bad faith, and have a remarkably efficient plan to normalize and legalize fascism.

“A nexus to a transnational criminal organization” sounds good enough that 95% of the public will shrug. But under this definition, does my Wells Fargo account mean I have a nexus with a transnational criminal organization? Similarly, I’ve paid them money, which no doubt in part went to their criminal fake account scheme. It’s coherent to say that I am just as culpable through this absurd game of sophistry. Who isn’t captured by this?

The definitions of crime are becoming intentionally malleable and debatable, misused with malice and cunning, and capture all of us. This moment is what it looks like to dismantle the rule of law. Eventually, a terminal case is 100% selective enforcement, but it will always be “legitimized” enough that a coherent case can be made either way.

It’s hard not to see this common thread the last few months. Whether its migrants, or students, or federal workers receiving arbitrary judgment, the rule of law is the only consistent enemy.