Like Frankenstein’s monster ICE has grown beyond Trump’s ability to control. Or maybe they are a lab virus that mutated into something that can’t be stopped. Well, however you want to think of it they are feeling their oats and making it clear they aren’t about to sit back and let anyone rein them in. Not even Trump! At least not without a fight and it looks like one has not only broken out but it’s going public.
That’s the takeaway from this short article from Raw Story. It’s not like MarkWayne Mullin has actually ordered a (cough cough) ‘kinder and gentler’ policy. Under Trump “Cruelty is the point” policy has been and remains S.O.P. Still, ICE has become a political liability and the GOP is facing enough problems as the midterms approach without having ICE going around and (at minimum) detaining American citizens or Green Card Holders, or worse badly injuring or even killing them!
It makes sense even Adolf Eichman clone Stephen Miller who runs immigration/deportation policy for Trump would quietly tell ICE that for now dial it down a bit. After all there are even Republicans in Congress that are pleading with the administration to do so. ICE however isn’t having it. They have gotten a massive infusion of money and agents who have no business working for the government much less carrying badges and guns.
Cruelty has been the point and it’s created an ugly, toxic mess. Agents already on the payroll got orders to be a whole lot more aggressive and new ones were recruited under questionable standards – and then not even put through the proper basic course all Federal LE must complete at Glynco, Georgia before getting additional training specific to the agency they’d serve in. No, the mission has been to go out and cast a wide, WIDE net and kick ass. Literally. All the while the Trump administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield them from accountability/consequences no matter what they did – including KILLING people including American citizens in the streets!
Since so many of the pre-Trump agents and virtually all of the new ones love getting to flaunt their cruelty under the color of authority (although they are careful with their masks and refusal to use body cameras to show the public who they are!) they have a taste for blood. Like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors they want more and the more they’ve gotten the bigger they’ve grown. Now they are out of control and aren’t shy about telling Trump to bugger off:
Officials within the Department of Homeland Security are fuming over his pick to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and thrilled Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer’s nomination has stalled in the Senate, Politico reported Sunday.
“We don’t need him,” an official told Politico. “Leave us alone… people need to stop telling us how to do what we do best.”
They may not think they need Trump (or Miller) but they could be in for a rude awakening. If Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress they might get Republicans (especially Senators) looking at 2028 who decide to cut their losses and move away from Trumpism. Trump himself might decide giving Miller free rein to pursue ridiculous deportation quotas by any means isn’t worth the hassle. The southern border was effectively shut down long ago and he can just crow about that and build sections of his wall. Stuff he can’t point to. Plus he’s got Iran and Epstein to deal with and what seems to matter even more are his vanity projects.
As for the part blocked out about ‘stop telling us how to do what we do best’ are you freaking kidding me? Their whole mission was sold as ‘going after the worst of the worst.’ How many ICE raids have you seen in gang neighborhoods during their rein of terror? Don’t think for a second the gang unit of any metro police force doesn’t have good intel on likely locations of where ICE is likely to find people here illegally who also have criminal records (or are wanted) either here or in their home country. But doing raids in those kinds of places is dangerous so ICE instead goes into regular neighborhoods. Or schools. Or churches. Or government buildings, often after having people summoned for regular processing of paperwork to get a Green Card or standard periodic ‘check ins.’
What ICE is best at is terrorizing people and communities! But they are filled with people who enjoy terrorizing, even physically harming other people. No wonder they work so hard to hide who they are when they are at work doing their thing. They know damn well the people in their neighborhoods, churches etc. would look at them very differently if they were ‘outed.’
Anyway what had been a private spat is now becoming public. The linked article notes that despite Trump’s preference to head ICE (Oklahoma state trooper Lance Schroyer who’s nomination is stalled in the Senate) still is Trump’s preferred choice. Being Trump I wonder how he’ll react when word of this defiance, this criticism from ICE agents HE empowered gets to him. It’s easy to imagine ketchup bottles flying all over the place with shouting and cursing about ‘who the eff do these people think they are. I am the boss and I tell THEM what to do. Not the other way around!’
This is a headache Trump doesn’t need with the midterms coming up. He doesn’t care one bit about what ICE has been doing and wan to keep doing which is to ruin innocent lives, rip apart families etc. The people affected mean nothing to him. Trump just wants ICE to chill for a few months to have a better chance in the midterms.
Maybe that’s the problem. The midterms. The writing is on the wall and while none of us should go counting our chickens just yet the fact is the GOP is playing defense all over the country and too often in places that should be easy Republican wins. Even Senators! ICE might be figuring the GOP is going to endure a bloodbath in November and wants to get in as much cruelty as they can while they can still do so. And THAT could be something that makes a difference in enough races to bring about Trump’s and their own worst fears – Democrats in charge. Issuing subpoena’s for Congressional hearings. Cutting their budget back to something that makes sense. They are making like Marlon Brando/Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now – “the horror…”
