The Theater of Control

From Berlin to Arizona: five democracies script their versions of power

U.S. Border Patrol members gather in downtown Los Angeles while Gov. Gavin Newsom holds a news conference at the Japanese American National Museum in August 2025. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

In Arizona, floodlights cut through the dark as masked agents in body armor march a line of suspected migrants toward waiting unmarked vans. Cell phone cameras…