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ACCORDING TO LIZ - On May 29 Stephen Miller, the architect of this administration’s war on immigrants, declared in a Fox News interview: “We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day, and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day.”
Ably assisted by Homeland Security Handmaiden Kristi Noem whose Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swooped down on people who just might be in this country illegally.
Shortly thereafter, masked ICE agents, with no identifying badges in violation of California law, ramped up activities in Los Angeles, sweeping citizens and undocumented workers alike into the dark holes of federal detention centers.
Escalating peaceful protests that heavy-handed agents cloaked in their anonymity provoked into a few outbursts of violence.
On June 10, energized by such an opportunity to attack an anti-administration stronghold, Capo de Tutti Trump ordered National Guard troops into what he termed a city “under siege” to quell unrest by people opposed to his immigration policies. And then the Marines.
On June 19, a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously allowed Trump to maintain control of National Guard troops he had ordered to occupy Los Angeles.
The following day Governor Newsom noted the decision was narrow and confirmed that “Trump’s claim that he [could] do whatever he wants” without justifying his actions, that the Wannabe King was “not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens.”
Once the legally elected leaders at city, county and state levels took the high road against ICE provoking mayhem instead of protecting the people as the president’s mendaciously purported his objective to be and lawsuits started flying, TACO-Man started to reduce the National Guard presence. Now even his military men are being redeployed away from Los Angeles.
California requires officers, agents and police personnel to always have their name or badge number clearly visible. If law enforcement can’t be held accountable, the public can never be truly safe. And that goes for the rest of the country and around the world.
Only dictatorships hide behind secret police. Empowering small men with big egos.
A New York member of Congress, Nydia Velázquez introduced the No Masks for ICE Act last month, which would bring California accountability to the national level for all enforcement agents.
In response to escalating immigration raids by masked federal agents in neighborhoods, workplaces, and sensitive locations like schools and courthouses, it would bar ICE agents from wearing facial coverings and require them to wear clothing displaying name and affiliation.
It joins bills such as the Mandating End of Lawless Tactics Act and the No Secret Police Act brought by state and federal politicians across the country that seek to nullify Gestapo tactics promulgated by the present president.
DHS and ICE agents wearing masks and without identification echo tactics of secret police in other authoritarian regimes, undermining local law enforcement by sowing fear and chaos in close-knit communities.
People upholding the law should be proud to do so, not hide behind anonymity.
New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the civil lawsuit against Trump that imposed hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and eviscerated his self-image as a wealthy, shrewd real estate mogul. Evidence showed he lied for years on financial statements to secure loans and make the deals that built his real estate empire and garnered reality TV fame on his way to the White House.
She withstood the Belittled Man-boy’s ongoing vituperation then and, last week she called out her old adversary, or at least his administration, again:
“It is deeply disturbing that, in the United States of America, masked agents can pull people off the streets in unmarked cars without ever identifying themselves as law enforcement… Congress needs to act now to ensure that all law enforcement agencies, including ICE, are held to basic standards of transparency, accountability, and respect for civil rights. There is no place in this country for a secret police force operating in the shadows.”
So, the focus of sub-rosa civil war shifts to another Democratic powerhouse of a city, where the California court cases could have wider implications on the president’s power to deploy soldiers within the country, especially after the Dictator directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations from other Democratic-run cities.
This week’s shooting of an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer in a robbery attempt in New York’s Riverside Park by two undocumented men from the Dominican Republic meant more harangues by the Pipsqueak’s coterie against sanctuary cities in general and New York and Mayor Eric Adams in particular.
All the president’s flunkies promised to flood the city with federal agents on a witch hunt for illegal aliens.
Which might be acceptable if they only went after criminals – after all who wants thugs, loan sharks, and pedophiles hanging in their hood – but it’s clear that ICE is targeting undocumented workers who are easier to find than felons and crooks to boost those arrest numbers.
Will the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple be reduced to a shadow of its former self with Trump’s Troops rummaging the boroughs while military-style helicopters circle between the skyscrapers? Will the life of that city be tattered by terror and its economy stutters to a stop as whole sectors of the workforce seek shelter from vengeful federal agents?
Will Adams’ fall from favor and the rise of Mamdani as a lightning rod for the right drive an uptick in unaccountable agent abuses, creating a flashpoint drawing Noo Yawkers into the streets?
What will they have learned from the trolling of Los Angeles and California, the fourth largest economy in the world, when Frump’s reality TV diversion dramas move across the country to America’s premier city. One which once welcomed immigrants to the country’s shores?
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
