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.