‘Big beautiful bill’ turns U.S. into police state

According to Althea Cole, the so-called big beautiful bill is not perfect, but it’s better than listening to Hakeem Jeffries give a speech in the House chambers.

In a way, I can relate, because some Republican leaders’ speeches make me sick, e.g., the one about the tooth fairy. However, free speech is still legal.

In fact, the bill (now law) is far worse than listening to any of those people. It strips Medicaid funding for millions. It makes the rich richer and the poor poorer, even though the U.S. already has a very high Gini index (0.483) of income inequality. Look it up.

But that’s not all. The law has $170 billion in funding for an all-out war against immigrants — beyond the wildest dreams of de facto President Stephen Miller. ICE will not just go after undocumented immigrants and those with criminal records. They will go after whoever is an easy target. This bill has funded an ethnic cleansing on a scale seldom seen in any country, much less the U.S.

We will have gestapo troops on our streets rounding up anybody who looks undesirable, and they will be sent off to a growing system of prison camps such as the newly touted Alligator Alcatraz, where there are clear expectations that the prisoners will be treated with extreme cruelty.

I never imagined that the United States would become a police state. We still maybe can stop it. See the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, ilrc.org.

Russ Lenth

North Liberty