This is NOT a Drill.

Part of my ongoing Letters to Louisiana series — personal notes and stories written to my fellow Louisianans about the challenges we face and the future we can build together.

This is not a drill. Politics has finally come for everyone — including people who never wanted anything to do with it. You don’t have to follow elections or care about party labels to understand what’s happening now. My children’s future — and all of our futures — are in direct peril at this moment unless all of us wake up.

A clock is ticking. The longer this continues, the harder it will be to recover the constitutional life Americans take for granted. What we are witnessing is not a rough patch or a policy dispute. It is a fundamental shift in how power is being used inside the United States.

Much of this is being mislabeled. The media continues to describe what’s happening as an “immigration crackdown.” That description does not explain armed federal deployments in American cities far from any border. It does not explain pressure campaigns against state election officials. And it does not explain why voter data, driver’s license numbers, and Social Security information are being gathered by an executive branch that has already shown open contempt for legal limits.

ICE sits at the center of this shift. It was never supposed to function as traditional law enforcement in the first place. It was not created to patrol U.S. cities, and it was not intended to operate as an armed domestic force. Yet that is exactly what it has become.

At this point, ICE is not functioning as an immigration agency at all. Its operations have shifted from enforcing immigration law to exerting political and domestic control.

Under the new funding bill, ICE’s budget is set to grow from roughly $10 billion to over $100 billion — larger than all federal law enforcement agencies combined. It has low recruiting standards, big bonuses, and light training designed to get new agents on the streets rapidly. Its operations are designed to project power and spread fear, not quietly enforce civil immigration law. Oversight and accountability are minimal at best.

At the same time, constitutional protections are being violated in real time.
In just days, core constitutional protections have been violated openly: free speech and assembly (1st Am.), protection from unreasonable searches and seizures (4th Am.), due process (5th Am.), and equal protection under the law (14th Am.). These are not abstractions. These are Americans being detained, searched, surveilled, threatened and killed without meaningful recourse.

Congress could stop this, but the Republican Party has chosen not to. The GOP has allowed this concentration of power, enabled it at every step, and is now fully captured by one man. It can no longer be trusted to defend the Constitution, restrain executive abuse, or protect the country from authoritarian control.

The motive is becoming clearer. Public support for Trump’s ICE actions is collapsing, and the administration knows it. This violent escalation looks like desperation ahead of the midterm elections.

That desperation explains what happened yesterday.

Federal agents seized election materials from Georgia state offices, violating the 10th Amendment. The action was justified by revived claims that the 2020 election was stolen — claims rejected by the courts after multiple audits and recounts, by machine and by hand. This was not about discovering truth. It was about keeping a lie alive long after the legal system resolved it and normalizing future raids on state election offices.

That intent has now been stated openly. Pam Bondi has argued that the chaos in Minnesota will end only if the state gives federal authorities access to its voter rolls — a demand that has nothing to do with immigration enforcement and everything to do with election control.

This is why elections are the real target. Federal force is being used to destabilize blue states, seize data, manufacture fraud narratives, and lay the groundwork to challenge or refuse certification of results that threaten the power of Donald Trump.

Louisiana matters because this is where MAGA power is anchored. What is accepted here spreads everywhere. If this state steps up the rest of the country still has a chance. If we don’t, there is no reset. This is how countries are lost — not all at once, but by people deciding to look away. Do not look away. We all need to act in any way we can before it’s too late.

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What can you do to help change Louisiana?

Set up a $5 monthly contribution to the Louisiana Democratic Party here

We have to get back to nuts and bolts of what built Democratic domination in the past. Sign up your interest to become a precinct organizer here.

Who’s running for Congress in 2026? Check out Jamie Davis, Jabarie Walker & Tracie Burke running for U.S. Senate against Bill Cassidy, Conrad Cable & Matt Gromlich against Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-4), Lauren Jewett against Steve Scalise (LA-1), Tia Lebrun & Priscilla Gonzalez against Clay Higgins (LA-3) and Larry Foy against Julia Letlow’s successor (LA-5).

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Dustin is a financial advisor and Certified Financial Planner with over 20 years of experience guiding Louisiana families as co-owner of Generation Wealth. A lifelong resident of Louisiana and LSU alumnus, he is also a proud #girldad. Dustin ran for Louisiana State Treasurer in 2023, bringing in more votes than any other statewide Democratic candidate, though he was ultimately unsuccessful. He has since focused on strengthening the Louisiana Democratic Party, having been elected Treasurer in 2024 and serving on the State Central Committee. As a delegate to the 2024 Democratic National Convention and a frequent commentator on social media and local TV networks, Dustin holds leaders accountable and champions progressive solutions for a revitalized Louisiana.