Anti-ICE Protests have Begun in ….
Minneapolis
Portland, Ore.
Houston
San Antonio
Omaha
New York City
Boston
Washinton D.C.
Seattle
Los Angles
Worrying by Trump officals on DHS Head Noem defending the ICE agent, instead of letting the FBI do it’s investigation…
The Trump administration’s rapid and aggressive response to the Minnesota shooting has prompted quiet concern among some administration allies, as well as former and current Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Particular anguish centers around how quickly Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, in public remarks from Brownsville, Texas, on Wednesday insisted that Renee Good, the 37-year old woman killed by an ICE officer, had committed an act of “domestic terrorism” and tried to “ram them with her vehicle.
Even supporters of the president fear that the administration’s approach — within hours the White House deputy chief of staff had also deemed this a case of “domestic terrorism” — risks undermining public confidence in the ongoing investigation and expanding the credibility gap between the public and the immigration agency patrolling dozens of American cities…
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It has left ICE as the latest and most prominent example of an ongoing national Rorschach test in which Republicans and Democrats watch the same video and claim to see wildly different truths, and some inside the agency worry that the administration’s rhetoric will only widen political fractures.
“I don’t know how we recover from this,” said an administration official….
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The Trump admin (Justice Dept. in Wash. DC) pushing the local and state law enforcement out of a ‘joint’ shooting investigation has led to some feeling a Trump admin ‘Cover-Up’ probe could be in the Minn shooting death ….
Minnesota state and local offices announced that they WILL proceed with their own investigation…
The Trump administration blocked Minnesota officials from investigating the death of the woman shot on Wednesday by a federal agent, then quietly offered this explanation: Local investigators simply could not be trusted to conduct a fair inquiry.
The investigation into the killing of Renee Nicole Good, 37, federal officials said, would be the exclusive province of the F.B.I., which is overseen by a director, Kash Patel, who has described President Trump as an unerring boss, and even a king.
Mr. Trump had already declared the shooting justified. Vice President JD Vance has asserted that federal agents had “absolute immunity” from prosecution. The homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, has spoken about the incident as if it were a closed case: Ms. Good had “weaponized” her S.U.V. to kill agents, she said, even though video analysis by The New York Timessuggested it was more likely that she was turning her car away from officers….
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“It’s hard to have any trust in the federal investigation given the White House’s immediate public effort to drive an outcome,” said Vanita Gupta, a former top Justice Department official in the Biden administration who oversaw the department’s response to incidents of police violence, including the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Are the feds conducting any real investigation of the agent’s actions, or instead focused on trying to justify what happened by tarring the victim as a domestic terrorist?” Ms. Gupta added.
The details and direction of the F.B.I.’s investigation remain unclear. A spokesman for Mr. Patel did not respond to requests for comment.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who oversees the bureau, said in a statement on Thursday that the F.B.I. would follow “standard protocols” to “ensure that evidence is collected and preserved.”…
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Mr. Trump and the team he installed at the Justice Department have repurposed the statement that Biden-era officials have used to justify the prosecutions of Mr. Trump — “no one is above the law” — to defend prosecutions of his perceived foes.
In a broader sense, they have also used the phrase to redefine justice according to his personal judgment of guilt and innocence.Over the past year, the president has granted clemency to hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters and other political allies. He has scuttled prosecutions of those he favored, like Eric Adams, the former mayor of New York.
During his first term, Mr. Trump’s demands were subject to internal pushback or slow-walked by department officials who were still able to maintain a measure of autonomy.
But over the past year, Mr. Trump’s commands have been dutifully executed by loyalists he views less as appointees than employees. When he talks, they listen….
The Protest/Demonstartions have begun around the country against the Trump admin ICE agressive actions…
Mounting outrage over an ICE agent’s killing of a woman in Minneapolis spilled into streets across the country on Saturday, as crowds of protesters mobilized against what they called the excesses of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
The “Ice Out for Good” campaign held demonstrations in small towns and major cities, including some that have been central targets of President Trump’s immigration crackdown. The protests came three days after an ICE agent in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen at the wheel of a car, during an encounter in South Minneapolis….
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The Trump administration has been mounting large enforcement operations in one city after another; in Minneapolis, the target has been primarily Somali immigrants. As has happened elsewhere, the federal agents descending on neighborhoods in Minneapolis have been met by protesters carrying cameras and whistles.
In Minneapolis, the public reaction to the killing of Ms. Good has been swift and angry. Law enforcement officers have used tear gas against protesters outside a federal building near the Minneapolis airport. Gov. Tim Walz, who has urged calm while denouncing the shooting in stark terms, has alerted National Guard troops in the state to be ready in case of unrest. And President Trump has dispatched more federal agents to the city.
By the weekend, demonstrations had spread to other cities….
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Ruben Garcia, 64, a Los Angeles native, wore a Dodgers jersey and waved an upside-down American flag in a traditional signal of distress. He said he was there to protest Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which he saw as an attack on Latinos.
“The bottom line is, we’re really angry,” Mr. Garcia said. “They shot a woman.”
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Democrats in Congress react…Not much they can do NOW….But Look for cuts in DHS’s budget and effort to push DHS head Noem out now, or certainly if they are the House Majority next year…
The growing uproar over Wednesday’s fatal shootingby a U.S. immigration officer in Minneapolis is spreading quickly on Capitol Hill, where a chorus of Democrats in both chambers are launching a blitz of proposals to rein in President Trump’s surge of federal forces in blue regions around the country.
Democrats are pushing a wide range of responses, including efforts to suspend all Minnesota operations of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) immediately; end qualified immunity for ICE officers more broadly; and call Kristi Noem, the head of the Homeland Security Department (DHS), to testify before Congress…
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One area where Democrats do maintain influence pertains to government spending. Congress this month is racing to adopt three appropriations packages ahead of a Jan. 30 shutdown deadline. One of those packages will include funding for the DHS, and some Democrats want to withhold their support for that bill to demand new limits on Trump’s deportation forces nationwide….
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White Border head Homan asks for cooler heads and to let the probes play out….
White House border czar Tom Homan urged critics to “tone down the rhetoric” about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting.
“Let’s decrease the temperature here,” Homan said on a Friday episode of “The Dr. Phil Podcast.” “Let the investigation play out.” …
image of Portland Ore. protest….Jordan Gale for The New York Times
Cover-Up efforts?