U.S. Democracy in Crisis: Firings, Deportations, and Disappearances

The headlines sound dystopian — because they are. The U.S. is shifting faster than we’re willing to admit.

The headline from NPR is blunt and plainly stated, leaving no room for the imagination: Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism.

The reporting from NPR details the results of a survey of 500 political scientists, finding that the vast majority think the United States is falling out of democracy. "We've slid into some form of authoritarianism," says Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard, and co-author of How Democracies Die. "It is relatively mild compared to some others. It is certainly reversible, but we are no longer living in a liberal democracy."

News Updates

Government Watchdog Drops Inquiries Into Mass Firings of Probationary Workers

The Office of Special Counsel has notified probationary employees that it has dropped their inquiry into 2,000 complaints of improper firings. Experts said the justifications to end the investigations were baffling. By closing this avenue to challenge their firings, the only option left for employees may be with one of the class-action lawsuits before the Merit Systems Protections Board… but Trump also fired the head of the MSPB, leaving it without a quorum and unable to conduct business.

Education Department Will Resume Collections on Student Loan Debt

Borrowers in default will be notified of their status in the next two weeks, and may be referred to the Treasury Offset Program, a debt collection service within the U.S. Treasury. The Education Department explicitly said it would move forward with involuntary collections (wage garnishments) should borrowers in default be unable to make payments. The announcement has been slammed by advocates for borrowers, who point out that most income-based repayment plans have been frozen or paused since Trump took office, preventing these same students from enrolling in the very plans that would bring them out of default, nevermind the months-long backlog of applications combined with the mass layoffs at the department.

An Immigrant Held in U.S. Custody ‘Has Simply Disappeared’

Ricardo Prada Vasquez is a Venezuelan immigrant working in Detroit when he accidentally turned onto a bridge leading him to Canada, a common mistake in that area; he was detained trying to re-enter the U.S. He last spoke with a friend on March 15, and told the friend he was expecting to be sent to Venezuela. He has not been seen or heard from since; he’s not on the list of detainees sent to El Salvador, nor has he been seen in videos. He’s just disappeared. ICE has confirmed he was deported but will not say where he is.

Mahmoud Khalil’s Wife Gives Birth as ICE Bars Him From Being There

He had requested a monitored furlough. They denied his request in less than an hour. To this day, he has never been charged with a crime.

Justice Dept. continues to stonewall on detailing efforts to return Abrego Garcia

Despite three different courts - including the appeals court directly over Judge Xinis and the Supreme Court - telling the Justice Dept. to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, the Justice Dept. continues to assert the position that “Upon Abrego Garcia’s repatriation to El Salvador, his detention was no longer a matter of the United States’ confinement,” the department lawyers wrote, “but a matter belonging to the government of El Salvador — which has been explained to the plaintiffs repeatedly.” This, of course, is a direct and blatant lie to the American people, considering the United States is literally paying El Salvador to hold them there. Virtually nobody in the country believes that Bukele would deny Trump much of anything.

Thoughts and Opinions from Americans, April 2025

Other Quick Updates

• The Internal Monetary Fund reported that the U.S. economy will grow by 1.8% this year; it’s a significant drop from January, when they had predicted growth of 2.7%. In effect, a full third of all growth expected in the country has been wiped out because of Trump’s tariffs.

• Several articles, including this one from the BBC, report that the Trump administration is considering whether to invoke The Insurrection Act of 1807, which would allow for U.S. troops to conduct law enforcement on U.S. soil.

• Paul Krugman is an American economist and Professor of Economics at the City University of New York. In the Substack article he posted this morning, he writes: “What we’re seeing now is something familiar to those of us who have studied economic crises in other countries, usually but not always emerging markets. For this is looking more and more like a “sudden stop.” That’s what happens when a country that has relied on large inflows of foreign capital loses the confidence of international investors. The inflow of money dries up — and the economic consequences are usually ugly.”

Personally, I'm finding it harder and harder not to worry these days. Even though so many of the Administration’s moves were predicted ahead of time, we're sliding into a dictatorship faster than anyone expected.

Now that the topic of a constitutional crisis is being discussed openly on podcasts, radio shows and mainstream news, we'll see if the American people are ready to stand up en masse for the rule of law, due process, habeas corpus and our democracy at large.

I'm worried… but not hopeless. For now.