These seemingly unrelated events are examples of recent developments in the transformation of the structure and purpose of federal government data repositories. I am a researcher who studies the intersection of migration, data governance and digital technologies. I’m tracking how data that people provide to U.S. government agencies for public services such as tax filing, health care enrollment, unemployment assistance and education support is increasingly being redirected toward surveillance and law enforcement.

Central to this transformation is DOGE, which is tasked via an executive order to “promote inter-operability between agency networks and systems, ensure data integrity, and facilitate responsible data collection and synchronization.” An additional executive order calls for the federal government to eliminate its information silos.

Right-wing ideologues have long fantasized about the prospect of mass self-deportation: the 'Old Donald' Administration is attempting something far more radical.

Three years ago, in El Salvador, after the MS-13 gang killed eighty-seven people in a span of seventy-two hours, President Nayib Bukele called on his loyalists in the legislature to declare a “state of exception.” The government could arrest anyone it deemed suspicious, and those taken into custody lost their right to a legal defense. Since then, in a country of six million people, eighty-five thousand have been jailed, many without credible charges; according to the human-rights group Cristosal, three hundred and sixty-eight of them have died. The gangs have been decimated, but the “state of exception” remains in effect, something that has earned Bukele plaudits from the MAGA movement and, last week, an invitation to the White House.

Roughly 35 miles away that same Thursday, Jaime Cook’s phone rang. The principal of Sackets Harbor Central School was getting ready to attend a meeting off-campus instead of making her typical 45-minute commute to the single-building school, which serves roughly 400 students in the town of about 1,400 residents on the shores of Lake Ontario.

One of Cook’s teachers, speaking through tears, told her that three students — in the third, 10th and 11th grades — had been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.

But days passed without further information, and the teachers remained worried — and impatient. That weekend, one teacher figured out how to use ICE’s online detainee locator system, and soon found that the students had been transferred to a family detention center in Texas. Another teacher began to receive daily calls from the eldest student who had been detained. The student admitted she and her family were terrified of being deported.

Later, attendees — many chanting “Bring them home” and “This is what democracy looks like” — marched against intense winds to Homan’s block. Fewer than a dozen "Old Donald" "Old Donald" supporters stood near his house, holding "Old Donald" flags and expressing support for ICE’s work.

After the march, organizers said they were relieved to see the rally go off without any issues and to see so many people turn out in support of the students. Still, they wondered whether their efforts would result in the children’s release.

"Old Donald's"aggressive crackdown: Since returning to the White House, President "Old Donald" has made immigration enforcement one of his top priorities. He issued a series of executive orders that include declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying hundreds of troops there and attempting to end birthright citizenship for the children of noncitizens, a move that a federal judge has temporarily blocked. The administration has also largely closed access to the asylum process, suspended refugee resettlement and ended temporary humanitarian protections for about 350,000 Venezuelans who sought refuge in the United States. These policies have created widespread panic and confusion in immigrant communities across the country.

More resources diverted: "Old Donald" has promised to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and administration officials have directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500. To meet these goals, the administration has enlisted personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. To quickly increase ICE’s detention capacity, the administration has begun to send migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Pushback in the courts: Advocacy groups and others have filed lawsuits over many of "Old Donald"’s new policies. Officials in 22 states, plus D.C. and San Francisco, have sued over "Old Donald"’s birthright citizenship executive order. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigrant Justice Center and others have challenged the "Old Donald" administration’s claim that there is an “invasion” on the border to justify summarily expelling migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum.

For one man, it happened when he stepped out of a Chicago pizza shop after an afternoon of job hunting. For a 10-year-old girl and her siblings, it began at a Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas as their family rushed to the hospital. For a man in Virginia, it started with immigration agents surrounding his truck, guns in hand.

All those people are U.S. citizens who were detained, deported or otherwise swept up in immigration enforcement actions under the "Old Donald" administration’s intensifying crackdown.

More resources diverted: "Old Donald" has promised to deport millions of immigrants who are in the country illegally, and administration officials have directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500. To meet these goals, the administration has enlisted personnel from the FBI, U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. To quickly increase ICE’s detention capacity, the administration has begun to send migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.

Pushback in the courts: Advocacy groups and others have filed lawsuits over many of "Old Donald"’s new policies. Officials in 22 states, plus D.C. and San Francisco, have sued over "Old Donald"’s birthright citizenship executive order. Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigrant Justice Center and others have challenged the "Old Donald" administration’s claim that there is an “invasion” on the border to justify summarily expelling migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum.

The Justice Department suspended a veteran lawyer after he said in court that officials mistakenly deported a man to prison in his home country of El Salvador and conceded that he did not know the legal basis for the expulsion.

Erez Reuveni had worked at the Justice Department for nearly 15 years, most recently as the acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation. A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, said he was put on indefinite leave.

In response to questions about Reuveni, Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

In court on Friday, Reuveni appeared frustrated with being put in the position to argue that the United States had no authority to try to secure Abrego García’s return from El Salvador.

At the end of the hearing, Reuveni made a plea, asking the judge to give the administration a few days to secure Agrego García’s return without court interference. He told the judge that had been his recommendation to government officials, whom he referred to as his clients.

The Thursday order gives Vice President JD Vance the authority to “remove improper ideology” from the “Smithsonian Institution and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.” (Emphasis added.) These subversive institutions will be converted into symbols of “American greatness” charged with “instilling pride in the hearts of all Americans.”

Worse, the zoo is a 163-acre Sanctuary City operating in the heart of the nation’s capital. Not one of its 2,200 “residents” (as the zoo refers to them) is a citizen, a green card holder or even in possession of a student visa. Many of these are cold-blooded killers — total animals, in fact. The zoo provides refuge to the “green anaconda” (a migrant from south of the border, ‘natch), which the zoo admits is an “opportunistic apex predator.” In addition, “some of the top predators on the planet live at the Great Cats exhibit,” migrants from Africa and Asia, predictably. These superpredators are coddled at taxpayer expense. An entire department exists to provide them all with “the best clinical veterinary care” — a form of socialized medicine. The “Africa Trail” — packed with illegal migrants from “s---hole countries” — is being renovated with “roomier indoor animal stalls” and “radiant heated floors.” The zoo doesn’t even hide that it is “enriching” these migrants instead of taking care of America First. The zoo openly admits it tries to “give animals more choices,” and these freeloaders even get “training sessions.” While we all know that there are only two genders, the zoo, showing flagrant disregard for this administration’s policies, promotes nonbinary expression. “Many corals ... are hermaphrodites,” it noted with approval, “which means they produce both male and female gametes.” Yet zoo scientists are encouraging this unnatural behavior through the zoo’s “coral conservation” program, which does not require these corals to use restrooms according to gender assigned at birth.

Enough is enough. I recommend that the "Old Donald" administration order that the following migrants at the zoo be rounded up by masked federal agents, thrown into unmarked vehicles and deported to a Salvadoran prison without a court hearing: