First they came for. . . (with the help of Medicaid data)
ICE has gained unprecedented access to Medicaid data. And yes, it gives them access to medical diagnoses.
First they came for the immigrants. Next they will come for trans people.
Trans people in the United States are disproportionately on Medicaid due to employment discrimination that leads to a poverty rate of 34%. Medicaid information will tell ICE who is trans. People have repeatedly said to me, “But how will they know who’s trans?” This is how. Trans people are next.
The reality is, Supreme Leader and his fascist regime will likely not be able to fill all the concentration camps they’re planning to build, at least not with immigrants, who—undocumented or otherwise—are going to go to ground. ICE will likely have trouble finding enough of them to fill the camps, especially as communities continue to fight back. Dictators can’t have empty camps, though, and nor can the capitalists who will build and run them. Empty camps would make Supreme Leader look weak, which he can’t handle, and the for-profit companies that will build and maintain them will demand the profits they feel they’re owed. The Trump regime will then expand the criteria of who can be snatched up to fill the camps, with trans people likely being next on the list. In fact, they’ve already expanded that criteria once before. First, they said they would only target the immigrants who were criminals, the worst of the worst. Oops, it turns out they couldn’t find enough of those, so they started rounding up the ones that don’t have criminal records, who now comprise the majority of those being arrested.
The questions then become: When they start rounding up trans people and throwing them in the concentration camps, will there be mass protests in support of trans people? Will communities rally around trans people in the way they have rallied around (mostly cisgender) immigrants? Will there be intersectional solidarity? Or will the public do what it has mostly done over the last 7 or 8 years now and collectively shrug their shoulders when trans people are targeted?