Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem’s relevance has increased since the second iteration of the Trump regime began. In America, first they came for the LGBTQIA community and immigrants, whether they are here legally or not. Then they came for American citizens who chose to engage in their First Amendment right to protest. Now they have come for independent journalists. Today, two independent Black journalists were arrested by federal agents. What was their “crime”? They too engaged in their first amendment rights to act as journalists who covered a protest. That protest took place in a church where one of the pastors also worked for I.C.E. as a regional supervisor. The arrests of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort are the latest in a series of five-alarm fires started by the Trance Regime.

This is brazen fascism. A judge had previously denied an arrest warrant for Lemon because he had not committed a crime. The regime arrested him anyway. Then they arrested Georgia Fort who was livestreaming at the time when federal agents showed up. “This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media,” Fort said. “It’s hard to understand how we have a Constitution, constitutional rights, when you can just be arrested for being a member of the press.” Fort was arrested at the direction of Pam Bondi. It should be noted that Pam Bondi is a criminal engaged in a major cover-up to protect Trump and “his friends” from consequences related to the Epstein sex trafficking ring.

It is important also to note that the federal agents who shot and killed Renee Good, Keith Porter, Jr., and Alex Pretti have not yet been charged for their crimes. DHS appears to be actively engaged in a cover-up of these crimes as well as the Epstein cover-up. The death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at an El Paso detention center has been ruled a homicide according to the autopsy report. He had been in the U.S. for thirty years. How many more of the deaths of immigrants are due to criminal acts and will we ever know? Getting legitimate information from the regime is well nigh impossible. Will the agents who murdered Lunas Campos be held accountable?

The violence and intimidation tactics are hallmarks of a fascist regime. As historian of fascism Robert O. Paxton wrote in his book The Anatomy of Fascism, it’s not just what regimes say that makes them fascist, it’s what they do. This regime has been targeting and scapegoating immigrants. Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance made that clear during the election cycle. His administration has posted openly white supremacist memes on social media. They continue to target the LGBTQIA community. ICE has ignored almost 100 judicial orders in Minnesota alone. How many more judicial orders has the regime ignored? How many violations of the Constitution have they committed? These actions are all the kinds of things fascist regimes do. Fascism is here. Now.

That Trump and his Christofascist enablers will do anything to protect him from accountability and to cement their power is clear. As Americans, as people of conscience, we must join together in saying “First they came and I stood up because I know the rest of the fucking poem.” Call your representatives in Congress, engage in consumer boycotts of companies who support this lawless regime, protest peacefully. We all have a role to play in stopping this fascist regime and then holding it accountable for its many crimes. The time is now. As Bob Marley said, “Rise, you mighty people! We’re more than sands on the seashore, we’re more than conquerors.”