The Signal this week—and probably for many weeks to come—is the relentless global spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, and the accompanying economic panic that is threatening to take down global stock markets and tank entire industries. The Noise is the incoherent mix of boosterism and skepticism about scientific expertise emanating from the White House.

Another Signal is the almost equally relentless march of xenophobic politics. With fear of outsiders intensifying as the coronavirus pandemic gathers pace, it’s likely that Trump’s brutal anti-immigrant policies—which a new report says amounts to torture—will only pick up steam.

Just this past week, SWAT teams and snatch squads were deployed in sanctuary cities to surveil immigrant targets in their homes and workplaces, locking into place siege practices against immigrants who refuse to open their doors when ICE comes a-knockin’.

This move was announced on the heels of the decision to deploy elite Border Patrol Tactical units—trained to operate against drug cartels in the most violent areas along the border—in urban neighborhoods to ratchet up the pressure on undocumented families. A family in the Bronx recently took a photograph through their peephole of an assault-rifle-toting ICE officer going door to door in their apartment building.

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