My family and I went horseback riding in some Arizona mountains a couple of months back. When we were on the trail, our guide made sure to tell us not to let the horses eat these little shrubs they like eating, because doing so will make them sick. And because of the way my mind works, I’ve thought about that a lot these days as I’ve witnessed the Trump administration and its Republican allies attempt to run roughshod over civil rights and democracy itself. The excesses of illiberalism seem to be causing sore spots for the GOP as it bends to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism. Take, for example, the recent instances of far-right lawmakers from both the House and the Senate decrying plans to repurpose certain facilities in their states to lock up people swept up in Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown. But now that the plan is being put into effect, Gosar and Wicker are up in arms — apparently not out of concern for the humanity of those incarcerated, but because of the impact the detention centers could have on surrounding communities. Gosar sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday, raising concerns about the Trump administration’s plan to convert a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, into a 1,500-bed facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Concerns regarding infrastructure capacity, traffic, emergency services, environmental impacts, and public safety deserve serious consideration,” he wrote. “These are not anti-illegal immigration concerns; they are common-sense expectations of transparency, planning, and accountability.”…
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