Trump Scales Back Aggressive Mass Deportation Effort, And, Surprise, ICE Arrests And Lawsuits Decline
The Trump administration has scaled back its aggressive and often cruel and inhumane mass deportation crackdown, likely due to public backlash and mounting lawsuits, and, as a result, ICE arrests are in decline, as are due process petitions launched by ICE detainees.
Also, water is wet, the sky is blue and MAGA is a direct reflection of adult literacy rates in the U.S. (Whatever, you know it’s true.)
From the New York Times:
After months of high-profile, militarized immigration raids in major American cities, the Trump administration has scaled back its deportation strategy, leading to a dip in arrests last month, according to three federal officials and internal government data.
In recent weeks, immigration agents have focused on conducting more targeted enforcement operations, rather than indiscriminate street sweeps, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy.
Those arrests have been less visible and chaotic than the campaign that led to violent clashes with protesters — including the fatal shootings of two American citizens in January — and generated intense political blowback against President Trump.
Now, we should probably consider that the administration is just lying low until the public relations nightmare created by its disastrous crackdown in Minnesota blows over. The Department of Homeland Security is currently going through changes, with one sycophant secretary being replaced by another sycophant secretary who was an MMA fighter once, apparently. So, the administration could be temporarily working with a more targeted and hopefully more humane strategy for its crackdown just long enough to complete the transition while hoping media amnesia takes care of the current debacle.
But for now, it appears that the Trump administration has been publicly shamed into changing its approach to something less Gestapo-like.
Along with the decline in ICE arrests, there has reportedly been a notable decline in lawsuits filed by detainees, many of whom are only petitioning to have their day in court.
From Politico:
Courts have been flooded for months with petitions for habeas corpus — requests by ICE detainees to be released from custody or at least to have a chance to plead their cases. Habeas petitions are still arriving at astonishing levels, but have noticeably declined since the administration pulled back from its mega-enforcement operation in Minnesota.
A POLITICO analysis found that immigration habeas petitions peaked at about 300 to 400 per day from Jan. 16 to Feb. 17, at the height of Operation Metro Surge. It was in this timeframe — which includes the Jan. 24 shooting death of demonstrator Alex Pretti — when public opinion began to sour on the Trump administration’s mass deportation tactics.
Habeas petitions peaked at more than 400 on Feb. 6 but have since steadily declined, dipping below 300 per day late last month and approaching 200 per day by early March.
Now, the issue of habeas corpus has been kicking the federal government’s ass since President Donald Trump came to the impression that he could boot people out of the country just for engaging in protests he doesn’t agree with, and now-former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem defended that position by demonstrating before Congress that she had no idea what habeas corpus is. So, much like the decline in arrests, it’s no surprise that the administration being bullied into pretending it has good sense has resulted in fewer immigrants overwhelming the courts with demands for due process.
But, again, this is the same administration that recently had to be shamed into releasing two members of a high school mariachi band — that had previously performed at the U.S. Capitol and toured the White House — after claiming they were arrested by ICE because they entered the country illegally.
This is not an administration comprised of decent, empathetic human beings. They are scaling back the cruelty because their regime is becoming increasingly unpopular, and being less horrible, if only temporarily, is the simplest way of doing damage control.
Sad.
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