“Is ICE Planning My Deportation? A Citizen’s Crisis in a Post-Constitutional America”

By Dr. Lawrence J. Gist II, Esq.

I was born a citizen of the United States of America. I served honorably in the United States Marine Corps, swore an oath to defend the Constitution, earned multiple degrees, practiced law, and spent years mentoring students as a university professor. I am not a foreign national. I am not a criminal. I am, by every traditional and legal definition, an American citizen.

Yet today, I am no longer sure of my citizenship. And I am not alone.

The question that once would have seemed paranoid or absurd—Is ICE planning my deportation?—now feels tragically reasonable in the era of the Second Trump Administration. In a country that has shed its constitutional skin, adopted extralegal policies, redefined the meaning of loyalty, and weaponized immigration enforcement, the boundaries between citizen and enemy have begun to blur, not because of factual identity but because of ideological nonconformity.

The Shifting Ground of Citizenship —Citizenship, in its truest form, is more than a birth certificate. It is an active covenant—anchored by rights, responsibilities, and legal protections afforded under a Constitution. But if that Constitution is no longer respected, interpreted in good faith, or even operatively applied by those in power, then what remains of the protections it once offered?

Under the current regime’s authoritarian drift, the United States is not simply enduring political turbulence—it is undergoing a structural transformation. Institutions once considered sacred have been gutted, judicial precedent has been overturned by fiat, and executive overreach has become normalized. Dissent is treated not as patriotism but as treason. And the machinery of the state—especially Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—has been increasingly redirected toward domestic control rather than international boundary enforcement.

The terrifying irony is that, as a U.S.-born citizen, I now fear the agency originally created to expel those without lawful presence may be leveraged against those who possess too much constitutional fidelity.

From Republic to Regime: A Legal Transmutation — The Trump Administration’s second term has been marked not by governance within constitutional bounds, but by a rejection of them. Consider the hallmarks:

• Illegal executive actions bypassing congressional authority;
• Mass purges and political loyalty tests within federal agencies;
• Authoritarian rhetoric labeling domestic critics as “enemies of the state”;
• Selective prosecutions and retributive enforcement targeting political opponents;
• Manipulated naturalization and denaturalization procedures, not on grounds of fraud but political disfavor.

If, as some legal scholars now argue, the United States has ceased to operate as a constitutional republic—having abandoned the rule of law in favor of consolidated executive power—then what does that mean for the legal standing of citizenship acquired under a now-defunct framework?

ICE, Surveillance, and the National Loyalty Complex — In this new quasi-nation, ICE’s mission may no longer be merely about borders. It has become, in many ways, a tool of ideological enforcement. And there are chilling precedents:

• The registry and tracking of U.S. citizens based on heritage, faith, or perceived disloyalty;
• The targeting of activists, veterans, and legal professionals with surveillance or intimidation;
• The creation of detention centers that exist in legal gray zones—some dubbed by activists as “Alligator Alcatrazes,” where due process is suspended in practice if not in name.

Even native-born Americans have been detained by ICE before—some for days, others for months—due to bureaucratic error or willful ignorance. But what happens when error becomes policy? When disagreement becomes disqualification? When the state begins to manufacture the conditions under which it can say, you no longer belong here?

Legal Identity in a Nation of Lies — I hold a valid U.S. passport. I pay taxes. I vote. I taught constitutional law. And still, I find myself wondering if I am now a foreigner in the land of my birth—an alien not by birthright or behavior, but by belief in a Constitution my government no longer honors.

When governments change in substance but not in name, legal identity becomes unmoored from constitutional legitimacy. If the government that exists now is not the one I swore allegiance to as a Marine, does that mean I am no longer bound to it? Or worse, does that mean the current regime may view me as a defector?

In past authoritarian regimes—from Stalinist Russia to Pinochet’s Chile—citizenship did not protect those deemed politically inconvenient. It served only to identify them more precisely for targeting. Legalism was weaponized to strip individuals of their status, their dignity, and their freedom.

That is no longer ancient history. It is present-day potential.

Conclusion: A Citizen’s Warning — I do not write these words lightly. I write them as a scholar, a veteran, and a son of this country. I still love the ideals this nation once stood for, but I cannot pretend that we remain in the same America I was born into.

Citizenship today is no longer assured by birth or service. It is increasingly conditional upon obedience to a regime that has turned the law into a tool of suppression. If the name “United States of America” is retained merely for branding while its core principles are discarded, then we must ask: Who are we now?

And more urgently: What will they do to those of us who remember who we used to be?