I’m not necessarily against deportations. The issue I have is that they’re being used as a justification to shoehorn in expanded surveillance and federal state control.

There are really two coherent options.

Maintain socialist programs and enforce tight borders (including deportations)

or

Abolish social programs entirely and limit the state to enforcing property rights

It seems Americans want the first option, to keep the social programs and adopt a hard-border approach. That’s fine with me, if that's what people want, although I prefer option 2.

The problem is that this choice now comes bundled with the very things the right claimed to oppose during COVID, like papers-please compliance, mobility restrictions, and normalized surveillance.

That contradiction is what’s hard to ignore.