In 1950, Nevada Democratic senator Pat McCarran said he wanted to save the United States from communism and “Jewish interests.” His solution was the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, known as the McCarran-Walter Act (MWA), and its complement, the Internal Security Act of 1950 (also known, confusingly, as the McCarran Act).

The two laws defined much of the legal framework for Cold War repression. A wave of politically motivated prosecutions followed, designed to terrorize progressive leaders, drain their resources through endless court battles, and, where possible, imprison and deport them. Mass deportations grew exponentially during this period. At the same time, contract labor schemes filled the fields with braceros (immigrant farm laborers) — a practice once prohibited by federal law.

Now one week into the marathon of executive orders issued by the Trump administration, a similar set of McCarran-like measures is reviving this Cold War strategy. Anti-immigrant hysteria and repression have seemingly been a permanent part of US public life, and the past election clearly demonstrated their prevalence in both political parties. Having taken office, the Trump administration is acting on what many hoped were empty threats. Its blueprint for a new assault on migrants and political rights is not just a right-wing continuation of business as usual but an effort that takes its cues from one of the worst periods in US political history: the Cold War.