This policy brief traces how racially coded “law and order” rhetoric evolved into institutionalized racial control within U.S. criminal justice and immigration enforcement, beginning with Nixon’s War on Drugs. It shows how political dog whistles reframed civil rights claims as criminal threats, laying the groundwork for mass incarceration and later extending to immigration through the 2025 Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo ruling, which authorized racially motivated ICE enforcement. The brief argues that Trump-era deportations and family separations are not anomalies but the continuation of a long-standing political strategy that weaponizes race. It concludes that dismantling racialized criminality is a moral and democratic imperative central to restoring constitutional equality.

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December 12, 2025