Email from Political Research Associates September/October 2025 As ICE raids tear people from their communities and the Supreme Court clears the way for racial profiling in immigration enforcement, PRA and The Public Eye is in solidarity with all im/migrants. Our Fall 2025 issue scrutinizes the movement driving these attacks from within the White House: the anti-immigrant Right. Together, our contributors place today's policies in a long history of reactionary efforts to make the U.S. a White-majority country; they also reveal how immigrant scapegoating and criminalization is central to Trump 2.0's authoritarian consolidation of power. Journalist and lawyer Jessica Pishko probes Florida’s efforts to be the “tip of the spear” of Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda by expanding participation in 287(g), a program that empowers state and local officers to act as de facto ICE agents. Anthropologist Sophie Bjork-James examines the White nationalist ideas behind the administration’s admission of White Afrikaners as “refugees” to the U.S., revealing the racial anxieties that fuel today’s anti-immigrant politics. Scholar Anita Say Chan connects the history of 19th century anti-immigrant eugenics to DHS’s tech-driven surveillance of immigrants, revealing how today’s anti-immigrant regime builds on an old playbook to design a system for wider political repression. PRA researcher Ethan Fauré speaks with Silky Shah, author of Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition, about the history of the U.S. detention and deportation system, recent anti-immigrant escalations, and insights for resistance drawn from two decades of organizing. In The Art of Activism, cover artist Rob Liu-Trujillo speaks with PRA about art as a medium for resistance and global solidarity. As always—between print issues of The Public Eye—visit politicalresearch.org and religiondispatches.org for more of PRA’s research and reporting on the Right. Kitana Ananda, Editor of The Public Eye In This Issue Florida is the "Tip of the Spear": How 287(g) Expansion Fuels Mass Deportations by Jessica Pishko The proliferation of 287(g) agreements under Trump has expanded the deportation machine exponentially, and there's no better case study for what this future of anti-immigrant crusading looks like than the state of immigration and deportation in Ron DeSantis' Florida. DHS’s Immigrant Tracking Tech Lays the Ground for Authoritarian Surveillance by Anita Say Chan Anita Say Chan reveals how new surveillance technologies employed by DHS and ICE to monitor, arrest, and deport immigrants have a long history rooted in eugenics profiling from the 19th and 20th centuries. Afrikaner Refugees and the White Nationalist Myth that Won't Die By Sophie Bjork-James The Trump administration has adopted draconian immigration policies limiting new arrivals and increasing deportations across the board in the U.S., with one notable exception: White Afrikaner refugees claiming to be victims of a "White genocide." “We Must Fight for Everyone” for Immigrant Justice: Author Q&A with Silky Shah on Unbuild Walls by Ethan Fauré PRA Senior Research Analyst Ethan Fauré speaks with Silky Shah, author of Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition, to discuss how abolition is the key to a strategy for combating the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. The Art of Activism: Robert Liu-Trujillo by Political Research Associates Artist Robert Liu-Trujillo speaks with PRA about this issue’s cover image, graffiti and political art, and connected global resistance. Read Here The Latest from Religion Dispatches Lying to Save Our Lives: Why You Should Say Whatever It Takes to Get the COVID Vaccine by Rebecca Epstein-Levi Ethicist Rebecca Epstein-Levi argues that it’s not only acceptable but morally obligatory to say what you need to say to get a COVID vaccine. We have duties of care to each other, and particular duties of solidarity to those the regime wants dead, which supersede situational duties of truthfulness. The Vatican Welcomed LGBTQ+ Catholics — Can it Do the Same for Women? by Jamie Manson All Catholics should be asking themselves why (even though official teaching still condemns same-sex relationships) the Vatican is welcoming the issue of LGBTQ+ justice when it remains so aggressively obstinate about questions of women’s equality, writes Jamie Manson. Charlie Kirk Memorial in Seoul Shows Power of Christian Nationalism for Young Korean Activists by Chanhee Heo On September 13, 2025, echoes of “We are Charlie Kirk” could be heard across Seoul. From Jamsil to Gangnam, thousands of young Koreans commemorated American political activist Charlie Kirk’s death by dressing in black, raising US flags and photographs of Donald Trump, and waving signs that read: “Chinese No-Visa Entry = Security Threat,” “CCP Out,” or “Defend Liberal Democracy.” The NAR Vows to Stage the Largest-Ever Gathering of Christian Women by Frederick Clarkson On October 25, a year before Brazil’s next presidential election, NAR prophet and impresario Lou Engle plans to stage a Million Women event in São Paulo, the nation’s largest city. It will be broadcast internationally on multiple platforms, and it will almost certainly feature denunciations of religious and political opponents, and the depiction of LGBTQ people as demons who must be eliminated by the army of the Lord. Senate Candidate Graham Platner Claims Ignorance of Nazi Tattoo by Annika Brockschmidt Images have emerged of a shirtless Graham Platner—a candidate in the Democratic senate primary in Maine—revealing a skull and bones tattoo on his right pec. And not just any skull and bones; what Platner has tattooed onto his chest appears to be the “Totenkopf” (“Death’s Head”) worn by members of the Nazis’ most notorious paramilitary organization, the SS. For more analysis and resources, browse PRA's most recent articles and 40-year archive on our website. Get involved with PRA! Write for Us PRA accepts pitches for our quarterly magazine, The Public Eye, submissions for web articles, and multimedia submissions. 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