How American Government Works Like the Nazi Machine: Hannah Arendt's Warning About Thoughtless Evil in 2025

Introduction

The Main Problem: When Ordinary People Do Terrible Things

Hannah Arendt studied Adolf Eichmann in 1961. He was a Nazi who organized the transportation of 6 million Jewish people to death camps. Arendt found something shocking: Eichmann was not a monster. He was boring. He was ordinary. He claimed he was "just doing his job" and "following orders." He did not think about the suffering he caused. He just executed procedures.

Today in 2025, the American government is doing something similar with immigration enforcement. Thousands of government workers are separating children from families. They are holding people in detention camps. They are deporting people who have lived in America for years. But like Eichmann, most of these workers are "just doing their jobs." They are not thinking about the human consequences. They are executing procedures.

This article explains how Arendt's theory applies to what is happening in America right now, and why this is dangerous.

The Supreme Court's Fatal Decision

Making the President Above the Law

In July 2024, the Supreme Court made a decision that shocked legal experts. The Court said that President Trump has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken as president. This means the president can use the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies, and no court can charge him with a crime. The Court said presidents need this immunity so they can exercise power "without fear of political retribution."

But this decision changed something fundamental. Arendt wrote that when the law becomes a servant of the state instead of a constraint on the state, totalitarianism emerges. Before this decision, no person—not even the president—was above the law. After this decision, the president can use the most powerful enforcement tool (the Justice Department and FBI) without any criminal accountability. This is exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. The Nazis used law enforcement to persecute whoever they wanted. Now the American Supreme Court has said this is constitutional.

Here is a concrete example: If the president orders the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents with fake charges, he cannot be prosecuted for this. If a dictator did this, it would be criminal conspiracy. But the American president can do it legally. This is totalitarianism disguised as law.

The Immigration System

Bureaucratic Machines Without Thought

Now let's look at what is happening with immigration. ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been given a quota. ICE officers must arrest 3,000 immigrants per day. Think about what this means: the goal is not to arrest dangerous criminals. The goal is to reach a number—3,000 people per day.

This is exactly what Arendt identified as thoughtlessness. An ICE officer does not think about whether the person they arrest is actually dangerous. They do not think about whether the person has lived in America for 20 years and has a family. They do not think about whether the arrest is just. They just arrest people to reach the daily quota. They are executing a procedure.

In 2025, more than 600 immigrant children have been placed in federal shelters. Most of them were separated from their families. Many were arrested after minor traffic violations. One teenager was stopped for a cracked windshield and ended up in federal detention. These children are now held for 6 months on average—much longer than before. Many have no hope of being released. Some have begun harming themselves.

An official at a detention center is not thinking about the children's trauma. She is not imagining what it feels like to be separated from your mother and locked in a cage. She is just managing the detention center. She is executing procedures. The worker who processes paperwork is not thinking about what happens to the people whose names appear on those papers. She is just doing clerical work. Nobody thinks. Nobody feels responsible.

This is how Arendt said evil happens: through thoughtlessness, not through malice.

When Nobody Is Responsible

How Responsibility Gets Lost

In Eichmann's case, he claimed he was "just 1 cog in a machine." The Nazi system was designed to spread responsibility so that no 1 person felt fully responsible. Eichmann was right—but the court found him guilty anyway, because somebody has to be responsible.

The American immigration system today is designed exactly this way: responsibility is spread so widely that nobody feels fully responsible. Here is how it works:

The president signs an executive order directing mass deportations. But he does not personally deport anyone.

Congress appropriates $170 billion for immigration enforcement in July 2025. But Congress does not arrest anyone. Congress just gives money without real oversight.

The federal government directs ICE to arrest 3,000 people per day. But ICE officers say they are just following federal orders.

State police in Texas are deputized as immigration agents. But they say they are just following federal law.

ICE officers arrest people. But the judges then decide whether to deport them.

Immigration judges make deportation decisions. But they say they are just applying the law.

Detention centers hold people. But center directors say they are just following procedures.

At each step in this chain, the person claims they are not responsible. They are "just doing their job." They are "just following orders." They are "just applying procedures." But at the end of the chain, 32 people have died in detention, 600+ children are separated from families, and 390,000 people have been deported.

This is how totalitarian systems work. By spreading responsibility across so many people and agencies, they prevent anyone from feeling moral responsibility. Eichmann's defense—"I was just following orders; I was just 1 part of a bigger system"—is now built into the structure of American government.

The Courts Are Powerless

How the Judiciary Lost Its Authority

In a democracy, courts are supposed to stop the government from doing illegal or unconstitutional things. But in 2025, federal judges are discovering they have almost no power.

When a judge ordered ICE to stop deporting people temporarily, the Trump administration responded by filing a lawsuit against the judge. The administration tried to have the judge removed from his position. Federal judges told reporters they feel helpless. One retired judge said: "We are at the mercy of the executive branch. The courts cannot enforce our orders. The executive has law enforcement power. We have nothing. We are powerless."

This is totalitarianism. In a totalitarian system, courts exist but have no real power. They rubber-stamp whatever the executive does. American courts are approaching this condition in 2025.

The Congress Does Not Oversee

Legislative Abdication

Congress is supposed to appropriate money to the executive branch conditionally—with oversight and accountability. But in 2025, Congress just gave $170 billion to the Trump administration with almost no conditions. Congress said: "Here is money. Spend it however you want. We will not really check what you do."

This is legislative abdication. Congress is supposed to be a check on executive power. Instead, Congress is accelerating executive expansion. It has essentially said: "We trust you to enforce immigration laws however you see fit."

When Congress appropriated the money, it required that all $170 billion be spent by September 2029. This creates pressure on enforcement agencies to spend the money quickly. So they expand operations, arrest more people, build more detention camps. They are incentivized to expand thoughtlessness because they need to spend down the budget.

The Real Danger

What Happens When Everyone Stops Thinking

Arendt's central insight was that thinking is the defense against evil. When ordinary people pause and think about what they are doing and how it affects others, they can resist participating in atrocity. But when systems are designed to prevent thinking—when quotas replace judgment, when procedures replace reflection, when employment depends on not questioning orders—then evil becomes ordinary.

The American government in 2025 is systematically destroying mechanisms that allow people to think. The Department of Justice fired 100 immigration judges. The unions that represented immigration judges and USCIS workers were dissolved. The office in the Department of Homeland Security that evaluated whether policies were legal was shut down. Now nobody is there to question whether policies are constitutional or ethical.

These are not accidental changes. They are deliberate structural modifications designed to make thinking impossible. If you are an immigration judge and you know you can be fired without protection if you rule against the government, you will stop thinking independently. You will just rule however the government wants you to rule.

If you are an ICE officer and you know your performance is measured by how many people you arrest, you will stop thinking about whether each arrest is justified. You will just arrest people to reach your quota.

Conclusion

Arendt's Final Warning

Hannah Arendt ended her study of Eichmann with a warning: the most dangerous evil in the world comes not from people who actively hate, but from people who stop thinking.

Eichmann was not a sadist. He did not enjoy causing suffering. He simply did not think. And because he did not think, he participated in the murder of millions.

What we are seeing in America in 2025 is the implementation of structures designed to prevent thinking.

A president who is immune from prosecution. Courts that lack power. Congress that gives unlimited money without oversight. An immigration system that replaces judgment with quotas. Workers at every level who are told: "Just execute procedures. Do not think about consequences."

This is how totalitarianism comes to democracies: not through tanks and secret police (though those exist), but through ordinary bureaucratic systems where thinking is eliminated.

If Americans do not understand this warning from Arendt, they may find that their democracy has transformed into something very different—not through dramatic revolution, but through the slow, ordinary processes of thoughtless administration.