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Dear Reader,

The New Republic just scooped a secret DHS memo—and what it reveals should alarm every American who values democracy.

The memo shows that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is pressuring the Pentagon to escalate military involvement in immigration enforcement—not just at the border but in American cities. They want the military to “feel the urgency” of a domestic “homeland defense” mission, comparing immigrants and gangs to ISIS fighters “operating freely inside America.”

This is the architecture of a domestic forever war.

Trump has already flooded urban protests with National Guard troops and used the military to stage deportations, from building up troops at the border to using military aircraft to transport deportees. The White House even reveled in the act by pumping out propaganda imagery of migrants being frog-marched onto military aircraft. But this memo outlines an even darker escalation: embedding military personnel inside Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to run operations “for years to come.”

The memo’s authors know they’re skirting legality—they admit that “minimal written policy” will exist because of how “sensitive” this is.

Our exclusive reporting on this memo exposes a deliberate plan to militarize domestic law enforcement under the false guise of “homeland defense.” They’re inflating threats, conflating immigrants with terrorists, and pumping ICE full of billions in funding.

This kind of journalism doesn’t happen without your support. Your donation funds the hard investigative work that brings documents like this to light. It ensures there’s at least one media outlet willing to hold the line when democracy is under assault.

Every donation fuels the reporting needed to shine a light on authoritarian power plays like this one. For U.S.-based donors giving $100 or more, we’ll send you a TNR tote bag to carry the truth with you.

The New Republic is reporting the stories that the White House wants buried. We’re holding power to account before these abuses become normalized, permanent, and even more dangerous.

Thank you for standing with us.

Sincerely,

Michael Tomasky, editor

The New Republic

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