AnarchoNinaAnalyzes<p>One of the immutable truths of any large scale, targeted fascist oppression operation, is that the most horrifying consequences will tend to fall directly on marginalized communities, and within those communities, the outcomes will be the worst for the most marginalize people overall. As such, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone to learn that the Gestapo's recent mass deportation project is disproportionately destroying the lives of undocumented sex workers as a result of targeted ICE raids featuring common abuses, and even sexual extortion. Unfortunately, the reason that it *may* still surprise you is that despite widespread coverage of the Gestapo's fascist abuses targeting other migrants, almost nobody, even among migrant activists and civil rights organizations, is speaking out for migrant sex workers targeted as part of the Trump regime's slow motion ethnic cleansing project. </p><p>This excellent essay on Truthout is divided up into main themes. Firstly, it raises awareness about targeted ICE raids on massage parlors, and calls advocates out for not standing up for sex workers who're being disappeared into the Gestapo's migrant cages at an alarming high rate without anyone really keeping track of it at all. Additionally, the piece also explores the way anti-sex work legislation and surveillance technology, originally adopted under the guise of preventing human "trafficking" has functioned as both a permission gate and a testing ground for the anti-migrant panopticon DHS is operating; a panopticon Trump is now trying to turn towards his political enemies more broadly by partnering with companies like Palantir to create dossiers on as many Americans as they possibly can.</p><p><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/sex-workers-are-being-abducted-by-ice-and-abandoned-by-respectability-politics/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">truthout.org/articles/sex-work</span><span class="invisible">ers-are-being-abducted-by-ice-and-abandoned-by-respectability-politics/</span></a></p><p>Sex Workers Are Being Abducted by ICE — and Abandoned by Respectability Politics</p><p>"Since January 2025, police raids on massage parlors have intensified, targeting immigrant women suspected of sex work. Amid nationwide protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), these workers — among ICE’s most systematically targeted — are largely excluded from community defense."</p><p>I don't want to give short shrift to the primary thrust of authors Kate Zen and Chanelle Gallant's work here, because at the end of the day it really is both alarming and disheartening to see that we as a society have learned very little over the past six months about how the regime targets those it is somehow socially acceptable to victimize (migrants instead of Americans, brown people instead of white people, trans people instead of cis people, etc) for fascist repression and abuse first, and uses that to create a gateway that allows those very same policies to work more broadly against everyone. The fact that nobody is fighting to protect migrant sex workers, calling for the release of kidnapping victims who happened to be captured at massage parlors, or even tracking what's happening to these (primarily) women isn't just respectability politics; it's mutual suicide in the face of a fascist ethnic cleansing and a broader eliminationist program. Migrant sex workers are migrants. Migrant sex workers are workers. Migrant sex workers are human beings. That makes the issue of Gestapo kidnappings targeting migrant sex workers a labor issue, a civil rights issue, and a human rights issue all rolled up into one horrifying fascist jelly roll of oppression. </p><p>Which of course then brings us to the long term costs of ignoring carceral violence, oppression, and civil rights violations of sex workers in the first place. </p><p>"The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (2015) authorized the creation of the Cyber Crimes Center within ICE, enabling wiretaps and internet surveillance. Between 2014 and 2018, DHS funneled over $3 million to local police for license plate readers to combat trafficking — now used in broader workplace raids.</p><p>Authorities justified travel bans, surveillance, racial profiling, raids, detentions, deportations, asset seizures, even sexual assault as anti-trafficking measures to protect women and children. But these measures do more harm than good, exposing migrants to additional forms of violence. Most funding went to prosecutions and public campaigns promoting false statistics and racist stereotypes, not victims’ services — fueling misguided vigilantism and MAGA fearmongering around child trafficking."</p><p>Folks, the authors of this piece are absolutely correct to point out that our decades long obsession with stopping "trafficking" was just an excuse to crack down on sex workers, and the digital panopticon used to do so is now being expanded to target migrants and even Trump's political opposition. Once you're willing to sacrifice the human rights of some ppl, for nothing more than patriarchal morality in this case, you're inevitably fueling the argument that your rights too, are subject to conditions and exemptions. And well, here we are. </p><p><a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Fascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Fascism</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/ICE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ICE</span></a> Gestapo <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/SexWork" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SexWork</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Labor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Labor</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/HumanRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HumanRights</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/Kidnapping" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Kidnapping</span></a> <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a></p>