Republicans “Oopsie” Their Way Into A Techno-Authoritarian State
This weekend, El Salvador’s right-wing President and self-proclaimed “coolest dictator” Nayib Bukele joined Trump and his allies in mocking the rule of law. After the Trump administration deported Venezuelan migrants in defiance of a court order, Bukele joined in the mockery of the rule of law, simply posting: “Oopsie.”
This revelry in lawbreaking isn’t just an isolated incident—it’s part of a wider authoritarian project. Trump is using immigrants as the foundation for a second-term agenda that rejects accountability, embraces surveillance, and enlists Silicon Valley’s most ruthless operators to create a high-tech crackdown.
Only those with a stunning disregard for consequences could adopt “move fast and break things” as a governing philosophy. And yet, it is precisely this contempt for accountability that has made tech bros and right-wing strongmen natural allies. Together, they are launching the United States into a techno-authoritarian experiment—one in which immigrants are the first targets, but certainly not the last.
Immigrants Are the Test Subjects for Trump’s Dystopian Experiment
The Trump administration is already accelerating its war on immigrants using technology once promised as a tool for progress:
AI-powered surveillance: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly seeking to use AI in a massive political surveillance program to identify immigrants with student visas and green card holders with political opinions he doesn’t agree with. This news came after reports that Rubio personally signed off on targeting Mahoud Khalil for detention without cause for this exact apparent purpose.
Facial recognition to punish dissent: Ari Fleischer suggested the administration take the next step towards techno-authoritarianism, calling for the use of facial recognition software to identify the peaceful protest against Khalil’s arrest in Trump Tower. Turning First Amendment activity into a deportable offense.
Mass online surveillance: Meanwhile, 404 Media reported on the leaked list of the 200 websites the government contractor Snapdragon monitors for ICE to track down immigrants. A separate program from the massive social media snooping operation that was announced by USCIS in recent weeks.
Weaponizing immigration apps: In a telling twist of how tech is being weaponized, the Trump administration announced that it had converted the CBP One app to scare immigrants in the middle of the asylum process to “self-deport.” The Biden-era app was an innovation, not without its problems, that sought to use technology to reduce the pressures of making a harrowing journey to the US border to claim asylum while allowing desperate families access to the legal asylum process.
True to the motto, while Trump uses technology to target immigrants, his administration is gutting the very institutions meant to provide oversight. Reportedly, the administration is looking to lay off as many as 500 employees from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, including many of the people working at the US AI Safety Institute. Which makes sense–when your government is rolling out an AI-driven deportation operation, the last thing it wants is anyone raising ethical concerns.
These tools are being beta-tested on immigrants today. But authoritarianism doesn’t contain itself.
Tech-Boosted Propaganda Fuels Public Apathy
Trump’s techno-authoritarian project isn’t just about deportation—it’s about conditioning the public to accept his extreme rule as normal. For the last several years, the American right has built out a multi-million-dollar industry to dehumanize immigrants, painting them as villains who are menacing “real” Americans. The human rights gloves come off and the rule of law doesn’t matter when dealing with the enemy “invaders,” they argue. The goal? To manufacture indifference—to make the public cheer on the crackdown, unaware they might be next.
$573 million spent on anti-immigrant ads: Last year, GOP-aligned campaigns outspent even sports betting companies in broadcasting xenophobic fear mongering across 11 battleground states and Montana.
Right-wing media dominance: As Media Matters recently reported, right-wing podcasts have worked in lockstep to amplify anti-immigrant disinformation. This ecosystem is, in part, a legacy of Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon–who helped kill comprehensive immigration reform in 2013 with then-upstart Breitbart—and is now being used to justify mass deportation.
A captured narrative: Research shows that 7 in 10 voters recalled seeing anti-immigrant messaging before heading to the polls. Not because it was accurate—but because it was unavoidable.
The American public isn’t rejecting a humane alternative to mass deportations. They just aren’t hearing one.
Accountability Is Possible—If We Demand It
Under the techno-authoritarian framework, the law, court orders, and the lives of immigrants and American families are nothing more than obstacles to bulldoze. Trump’s government, backed by a right-wing media machine, is moving fast—shattering legal protections, targeting vulnerable communities, and laying the groundwork for something far more expansive: democracy. And when democracy breaks, every working American family—regardless of citizenship status—will pay the price.
Some in Trump’s orbit are weaponizing technology to tighten their grip on power; others are blindly feeding authoritarian ambitions through unchecked surveillance and AI-driven policing. Whether intentional or reckless, the result is the same: a state with no limits and no oversight.
But accountability is still possible.
California provides one example. There, Democratic state lawmakers are proposing a rash of new bills to prevent ICE from accessing sensitive locations and other data collected by corporations. Other states could follow suit, passing legislation that blocks the creeping techno-authoritarianism.
“We’ve seen how location and digital data can be weaponized to target immigrant communities, protesters, and others whose identities or actions run counter to certain political agendas,” Assemblymember Chris Ward told Politico.
It is also worth keeping in mind that despite all the machinations of the nativist right, the American people by a 22-point margin prefer a pathway to citizenship to mass deportation. People want solutions that center working families and a shared future. But they aren’t hearing that story. And unless a real counterforce emerges, that narrative will continue to win.
This will not resolve itself. Democratic lawmakers must act—not just to stop mass deportations, but to block the creeping, unaccountable techno-authoritarianism taking root in our institutions. They must put up roadblocks before this system scales.
Because the worst mistake we could make is assuming it will stop where it started.