The New Republic obtained a Department of Homeland Security memo indicating ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s Homeland Security Department is pressuring the military to further involve itself in the Gestapo-like wet dreams of Co-presidents Donald Trump and Stephen Miller.

The memo lays out the need to persuade top Pentagon officials to get much more serious about using the military to combat illegal immigration—and not just at the border. It suggests that DHS is anticipating many more uses of the military in urban centers, noting that L.A.-style operations may be needed “for years to come.” And it likens the threat posed by transnational gangs and cartels to having “Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America,” hinting at a ramped-up militarized posture inside the interior.

In other words, the Trump goons are looking to ramp up the fear factor to justify their fascism.

The memo was written by the younger brother of WhiskeyLeaks Pete Hegseth, the completely unqualified and unfit Secretary of Defense. The even less qualified Philip Hegseth is now a senior adviser to ICE Barbie Noem and, very conveniently, a DHS liaison officer to the Defense Department. No word yet on whether Philip is a big drinker, womanizer or accused rapist, like his big brother. But we do know he’s all in on the fascism

The memo was written in advance of a July 21 meeting between senior DHS and Pentagon officials. Its clear intent is to pressure the military into more involvement in more ICE-related mass operations and arrests. The top item under “positive outcomes and/or action items” is:

The U.S. military leadership (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and NORTHCOM) need to feel – for the first time – the urgency of the homeland defense mission. They need to understand the threat, what’s at stake, and the political importance the administration has placed on this issue.

The memo claims that DHS, the Border Patrol and ICE “need” help from the military to deal with the “threat” those agencies “are up against.” It also claims the threat is “on the same plain [sic] as having Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America.”

Hegseth Junior also states that while the Los Angeles “joint work” was not perfect, “I think it’s a good indicator of the type of operations (and resistance) we’re going to be working through for years to come.”

He claimed this kind of “urgent and cooperative” mission is “a priority of POTUS.”

This should send chills down every democracy and Constitution-loving American, no matter who you voted for. That’s especially so given that Trump’s lickspittles in Congress just allocated more than $100 billion in new funds for ICE (while stripping millions of Americans of their health care, food benefits and other essential services). ICE’s budget is now larger than most of the world’s militaries.

If you think Trump won’t use that power against his perceived domestic enemies, think again.

More from The New Republic:

In a sense, the administration seems to be supercharging immigration “invasion” agitprop to manufacture a sense of national trauma similar to the one that arose after the September 11 attacks. That led to another type of war-on-terror hyper-militarization at home (as well as abroad). The administration seems determined to outdo that—this time against the new internal enemy.

“Normalizing routine military support to law enforcement could create a kind of domestic ‘Forever War,’ but one that is uniquely dangerous,” the Brennan Center’s [Joseph] Nunn told me. “As the Founders well understood, a military that is turned inward is a threat to both democracy and individual liberty.”

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend joining the One Million Rising effort to mobilize non-violent resistance to authoritarianism.