Most of our cowardly media fails us every time the student

deportations are written about. Way back in January "Salon" did an article about the rabid right wing group named BETAR that had compiled a list of students it wanted deported/visas canceled etc. However now when writing stories about these students most of our "journalists" are somehow unable to ask the authorities "Was the name of this student given to you by BETAR?" Seems to me to be a relevant question.

Nor do I see any stories about the media requesting that list from the government under FOIA. Are we to believe that the State Department all on it's own went out and began all of this? It is important for several reasons.

What other groups is the administration of Crumb The 1st going to accept "lists" from of people to go after? Of course there has always been government to government sharing of this type but throwing the doors open to having radical political groups be able to submit "hit lists" for punitive measures is something that goes back to the days of the 1950's and the Red Scare.

It would seem clear that the GQP/MAGA love the idea of groups like the Birchers etc. being able to make lists of people and submitting them to government for investigation/punitive action. They give no thought or care, nor want to, about whether the people on the list have actually done anything they are accused of by these groups. For a long period now several of the "shining stars" in the MAGA-verse have been hailing Joe McCarthy as a forgotten and wrongly maligned hero. The expression of their embrace speaks to their acceptance of the actions of compiling "lists" by groups like BETAR.

Patel has his list he compiled before gaining the office with the power to go after and intimidate every person on his list. Does anybody really believe his promise not to do so? Really? RFK Jr. has his list. Others have theirs and lists of journalists and critics have been more or less founding documents in the circle of the right wing for decades. They come after PBS not because of "saving money" but because they have hated the programs PBS Newshour, Frontline, Nature, American Experience, Sesame Street etc. for decades because those programs shine a light on things that the right wing does and supports.

So the list makers try to change the way they are perceived. Groups like BETAR say they are simply working against anti-Semitism. But they don't tell you the fact that their definition of anti-Semitism as recently pushed by the radical right parties in Israel makes almost any criticism of acts of the Israeli government fall under the definition. No rational person argues for anti-Semitism nor should they embrace using "lists" to go after people who criticize/oppose a government action.

What happens in a foreign land doesn't stay there, regrettably, and as Americans we need to ask ourselves whether the radical right in the US is embracing using the BETAR lists merely to establish the mechanisms for pursuing their own lists. Many on the GQP/MAGA side have called for a new House Un-American Activities Committee to be formed. They have had their lists all ready to go for a long time. They've been practicing for months under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism.

As we learned under Hoover, once the mechanisms to go after people are in place the mechanisms and their supporters will always find a new "list" once they get through the old one.

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/31/pledged-to-deport-pro-palestine--and-a-pro-israel-group-has-already-made-a-list/