If you can be targeted, arrested, and deported for doing a thing, it is a crime in every way that matters.

To the extent that this does not apply to citizens at scale, there are many more people who are not effectively silenced. If they pass laws that are upheld and able to effectively silence everyone, that would be objectively a big step towards crushing dissent. There are relatively recent laws by conservative states attempting to regulate social media that have been blocked for 1st Amendment reasons. I don’t see a reason to consider the legal barriers useless, they pretty clearly matter a lot here.

And I believe Trump’s allies in Silicon Valley are closing the gap between what they want and what they can practically achieve.

We’re here, on a network not controlled by those companies. Free speech protections are a big part of what makes that possible.

I’m not saying they couldn’t be stronger. There is a huge problem with abusing deportations this way, and other forms of legislating speech by enforcement. But please consider how much worse things can get, and what barriers still remain between here and there. That it isn’t a crime to say “Free Palestine”, that it isn’t a simple matter of declaring it a racist slogan to make it a crime, does mean something.

Free speech protections are still in place, and this is why they are important. This resolution can’t prevent people from saying it, just signals that the current house of representatives wants to.