MAGA loves to throw out a smug little question whenever anyone criticizes their movement:
“What rights have you lost under Trump?”
It’s not a real question. It’s a shield. A red herring designed to end the conversation—not open it up.
Because if we take it seriously, we have to talk about what Trump promised to do, what he tried to do, and what the Constitution is supposed to protect us from in the first place.
And we have to talk about the people already living with the fallout.
The Constitution—Until It’s Inconvenient
Donald Trump campaigned on ideas that outright violate the Constitution. He promised to “end birthright citizenship.” He fantasized about mass deportations “without judicial interference.” He mused about rounding up protesters and using the military to “restore order.”
These weren’t just applause lines. They were blueprints.
Birthright citizenship is written into the 14th Amendment—“All persons born or naturalized in the United States… are citizens of the United States.” Trump’s vow to erase that by executive order wasn’t just extreme—it was an attempt to cross out the very foundation of citizenship with the stroke of a pen.
And if you think that’s where it would stop, you haven’t been paying attention.
Due Process: Rights for Some, Scrutiny for Others
Due process isn’t optional. It isn’t a perk for the “right kind of American.” It’s the constitutional guarantee that the government can’t take away your liberty without fair procedure.
But right now, that guarantee depends on how you look, how you sound, and who’s in power.
Consider what happened to Caroline Dias Goncalves, a 19-year-old University of Utah student.
On June 5, 2025, she was driving through Mesa County, Colorado, when Investigator Alexander Zwinck of the Sheriff’s Office pulled her over. A routine traffic stop—until it wasn’t.
The deputy questioned her about her accent and place of birth.
After letting her off with just a warning, Zwinck took her personal information—including a photo of her driver’s license—and shared it in a private Signal chat.
The Signal Chat: MAGA’s “Deep State,” Just With Cowboy Hats
Here’s where the hypocrisy hits peak projection.
The same folks who shriek about the “Deep State” and “government corruption” are running their own backchannel government on Signal—and they call it law enforcement.
This wasn’t some public, accountable process. It was a secret chat room where a sheriff’s deputy casually shared Caroline’s personal info with federal immigration officers—under the pretense of “drug interdiction.”
MAGA loves to warn us about shadowy government figures secretly pulling strings, “weaponizing” agencies, and trampling freedoms.
Turns out, they just didn’t like the competition.
Because this was their Deep State.
And like every good projection, they accused everyone else of doing what they were already perfecting: abusing power in the dark, bypassing rules, and pretending the Constitution is optional if the target is someone they don’t like.
ICE Involvement and Fallout
Within hours of that Signal message, ICE agents tracked Caroline down and detained her.
This 19-year-old—brought to the U.S. from Brazil as a child, attending college on a Dreamer merit scholarship—was held in an ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado for two weeks.
Colorado’s Attorney General later confirmed the obvious: Deputy Zwinck broke state law. Colorado restricts local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration policy.
The Sheriff’s Office admitted that ICE was mining the Signal chat for immigration enforcement and quietly pulled out of the group. The AG filed a civil complaint against Zwinck and launched a broader investigation into whether other agencies were running the same illegal backchannel.
But none of that undoes what Caroline endured: being treated like a suspect for her accent, losing her freedom because of a secret chat room, and being reminded that the rules don’t apply evenly.
The Rules Are Written This Way on Purpose
Here’s something most Americans don’t realize: federal immigration law isn’t criminal law. It’s administrative law—a sprawling, deliberately confusing bureaucracy governed by rules, regulations, and shifting requirements.
And those rules aren’t written in stone tablets—they’re written by Congress.
That means the same lawmakers and administration officials who wrote the rules that let Caroline qualify for a Dreamer scholarship could have just as easily written the rules to grant her citizenship.
If the executive branch and legislative branch can work seamlessly to detain a college student, they could work just as seamlessly to welcome her.
But they don’t.
Because they’re better at using the system to harm than to help.
They make the process confusing, complicated, and convoluted—so tangled that even immigration attorneys struggle to untie the knots.
Every form has a form for its form. Every deadline has a waiver for its waiver. The process takes years, sometimes decades. The rules change midstream, and people are punished for not knowing which version of the rules applied last Tuesday.
It’s not an accident.
The confusion isn’t a bug. It’s the feature.
When the rules are that murky, anyone can be tripped up. Anyone can be “out of compliance.” And that means anyone can be made vulnerable.
Profits Over People—Even in the Paperwork
And here’s the hypocrisy no one wants to name out loud:
The Trump administration—and the GOP more broadly—love to brag about “cutting red tape.”
But only when there’s a profit margin at the end of the scissors.
When it comes to deregulating Wall Street? Slash away.
Environmental rules that keep chemicals out of drinking water? Cut them to ribbons.
Workplace safety standards that protect a minimum-wage worker? Gone in the name of “efficiency.”
But when it comes to simplifying the rules for human beings—for Dreamers, for workers, for anyone not in the billionaire club—they suddenly “can’t” streamline a thing.
Why?
Because there’s no profit in making it easier for a college student to get citizenship.
The GOP mantra has always been clear, if you pay attention:
Profits over people.
The system stays deliberately convoluted for the powerless—and miraculously convenient for the powerful.
This Isn’t Just Immigration. It’s the Whole Playbook.
Immigration is just the sharpest example, but this “administrative chokehold” runs through our entire system.
- Student debt. Congress writes rules that make repayment simple for banks, but labyrinthine for borrowers.
- Disability benefits. Veterans and disabled Americans spend years proving their pain on forms that never end—while defense contractors get billion-dollar payments with a single signature.
- Healthcare. Medicaid and CHIP applications are an obstacle course, while tax breaks for pharmaceutical companies are automatic.
When the government wants to act fast, it can. When it wants to make life impossible, it does.
The Court Just Made It Easier for Rights to Disappear
And the Supreme Court just made stories like Caroline’s even more dangerous.
In a recent ruling, the Court decided federal judges can’t issue broad-based injunctions unless there’s a class action lawsuit.
That might sound technical. But here’s the plain-English version:
If your rights are violated, you’re on your own.
Before, one ruling could stop an unconstitutional law or executive order for everyone. Now? Unless you’re part of a certified class action, the ruling only applies to you.
Imagine if Trump—or any president—signed an executive order restricting gun ownership. There won’t be one sweeping court decision blocking it nationwide. Each gun owner will have to file their own lawsuit, hire their own lawyer, and hope their case goes the distance.
That’s not “limited government.” That’s government by exhaustion—counting on the fact that most people can’t afford to fight.
The MAGA Blind Spot
MAGA supporters think the crackdown stops with “them”—immigrants, Muslims, protesters, whoever they’ve been told to fear this week.
But power doesn’t work that way.
Once you normalize the idea that some people don’t deserve rights, it doesn’t stay in that box. The same surveillance, the same backchannels, the same erosion of due process—all of it eventually swings back around.
And here’s the part MAGA doesn’t want to hear:
The average MAGA supporter isn’t in the club.
The current crop of Republicans isn’t fighting for the working class. They aren’t lifting anyone up. They’re protecting the ruling class—shielding billionaires and corporate giants while tossing scraps to keep the crowd cheering.
Cheering for the Coliseum
Right now, MAGA thinks they’re winning.
They cheer when rights are stripped from people they don’t like. They clap when the courts look the other way. They laugh when cruelty becomes policy.
But they don’t see where this road leads.
Because if you keep cheering as rights get chipped away—rights you think only matter to “other people”—you’ll wake up one day and realize the system you built isn’t protecting you, either.
And when that happens, it won’t matter how many flags you waved.
Because you won’t be in the stands anymore.
You’ll be in the arena.
McClure Magazine 
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