Border Czar
Tom Hohman is in Minneapolis. Hohman, Trump’s “Border Czar”, is directly taking over ICE Operations there. He’s got a tough job. His agents were randomly searching for undocumented migrants and taking men, women, and children in custody often without any due process of law. The actions of his agents were countered by the citizens of Minneapolis. Many have tried to protect folks who have committed no crimes, but simply are undocumented. (And before we get lost in the weeds, crossing the border “without papers” is a civil offense, not a criminal offense).
“Agitators” followed ICE teams randomly driving the roads, looking for “illegal immigrants”. The ICE teams focus on the “looks” of possible undocumented, with all of the civil liberties violations that entails. Minnesota citizens created networks of “warners and watchers”, blowing whistles and horns when ICE was around. And they stood witness, both personally and with video, of ICE actions. The seemingly untrained and badly led ICE “teams” often lashed out at the citizens, with chemical weapons and physical attacks. It’s resulted in the shooting deaths of two, both US citizens.
The Battlefield
Hohman promises a change in strategy. He uses “battle terminology” to describe ICE actions, saying some agents have been “in theater” for eight months. “In theater” means doing their job, in the United States. And clearly, to Hohman, the United States is a battlefield, where ICE is fighting what he calls a valiant and necessary war to clean the streets of the undocumented.
He promises more ICE operations. He promises continued deportations. But he also promises that the “random” drive-by operations led by the officer he replaced, Greg Bovino, will not be the strategy. Hohman promises to focus on those undocumented who commit other crimes, targeting operations to capture specific individuals. And he intimates that there is some kind of “deal” made with the mostly Democratic leaders of Minnesota, to give ICE access to undocumented being held as criminals in Minnesota’s jails and prisons.
To push the military analogy a little farther, it’s kind of like the opening scene of the movie, Patton. The US Army in North Africa, fresh from a horrible defeat at Kasserine Pass, is waiting. The general who led them to defeat, has been sacked. The soldiers look slovenly, undisciplined, and defeated. And in comes General George Patton, flags flying on his Jeep, demanding discipline, decorum, and readiness. Tom Hohman is Trump’s Patton.
At the Top
For those who hoped that the ugly, un-American actions of ICE were over, Hohman made it clear that he’s going to continue to “wage war” on the undocumented. As he said, “If you’re undocumented, you are always at risk”. But Hohman plans to focus on the campaign promise Trump made during last year’s Presidential election. He’s going after criminals, not just any undocumented.
The concern we should have, is the true leader of the ugly American campaign is still in charge. Stephen Miller is still Deputy Chief of Staff in the White House. It was Miller’s demand that 3000 undocumented be deported a day, that drove the random round-ups that led to violence. It’s Miller’s firm assertion that all undocumented persons are “criminal”, simply by being undocumented. That means children and grandparents should be thrown into jail without due process, and dumped in foreign lands. And Miller put Kristi Noem in place as the Secretary of Homeland Security, with old, trusted, Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski at her side. Nothing has changed at the top.
“Justice is Coming”
Hohman promises that “justice is coming”. He wasn’t talking about the undocumented criminals. He was referring to the protestors, the “warners and watchers”, who use social media to track and disrupt ICE operations. Just as the Justice Department opened “obstruction” investigations of Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, the organizers of the “warners and watchers” may be subject to Federal intervention. It’s a chilling thought: the US Government using the power of the Justice Department to stifle political dissent. But it’s a sign of our times. The Justice Department demands the voting rolls from swing states, and even sent the FBI into the Fulton County (Atlanta) board of elections. Attorney General Bondi offered to take ICE out of Minnesota in exchange for their voter information.
What we can expect is the ICE will be more disciplined, and better organized, and less likely to “pick fights” with civilians. Hopefully they will be less likely to use deadly force. And we can brace for an ICE “publicity tour” of all the horrible criminals that are caught and deported. But with Miller, Noem and Lewandowski still at the helm, don’t expect the real policy to change.
America is still in the “business” of “cleansing” the undocumented. And it’s still un-American.
