Lessons From Two Eras
inety-two years apart, two government orders authorized rapid expansion of forces empowered to use coercion against designated populations. The contexts differ. The mechanisms do not.
In February 1933, Hermann Göring deputized 50,000 stormtroopers as auxiliary police. In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order framing immigration enforcement as protection against “invasion.” Both expanded the authority of organizations tasked with confronting what their sponsors labeled “enemies within.”
This is not a claim of moral equivalence. The SA was a party militia that murdered opponents and enabled genocide. ICE is a federal agency operating under statutory authority. Different systems, eras, and constraints apply.
The comparison is structural. What happens when a state rapidly expands a coercive force aimed at a defined population? Recruitment surges, lowered standards, compressed training, weakened oversight, and ideological permission follow a recognizable pattern. History shows those patterns matter. The open question is whether present institutions can constrain them before expansion outruns control.