Two weeks ago, Jonathan Chait was one of many left-wingers who seemed to be declaring victory of ICE and President Trump. Here's a bit of what he was saying.
Trump’s retreat in Minneapolis is a stinging defeat for the national conservatives, the Republican Party’s most nakedly authoritarian faction...
Trump’s capitulation would never have occurred if not for the heroic, disciplined resistance in Minneapolis. Faced with something like an occupying army that was systematically flouting the law, the people of Minneapolis thrust its abuse into the public eye, raising the political cost of Miller’s war until enough Republicans decided that they couldn’t bear to pay it.
That response was mild compared to the Bulwark, which was saying it was time to plan the new Nuremberg trials. I pointed out at the time that this seemed like a bit of over-celebration by the left. In fact, not that much had changed.
...Trump has softened his tone a bit and has backed away from the "domestic terrorist" language used by Noem and others. It looks like some ICE agents are being removed including Greg Bovino who is no longer running things in Minneapolis. However, Tom Homan is now in Minneapolis meeting with Gov. Walz. ICE doesn't appear to be leaving completely, though I guess that could change. It just seems to me that maybe Chait is declaring victory a little early. Trump is still the president. ICE is still operating. Not that much has changed beyond the momentary sense that Democrats are in control of the national conversation.
Two weeks later it seems even more clear that not that much did change. It appears that maybe Tom Homan made some kind of deal with Tim Walz and Jacob Frey. About 700 federal agents were pulled out of the state (leaving as many as 2,000 still in place) and in exchange it appeared the local police had started making arrests. But today there are multiple reports that ICE is still operating in Minneapolis, whether the activists like it or not.
Five days after federal officials announced hundreds of immigration agents would be leaving Minneapolis, City Council President Elliott Payne says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still visibly active in the city...
“They're continuing to intimidate and terrorize the community,” Payne said.
“And I think that the goal of Tom Homan switching out for Gregory Bovino is purely optics and damage control. It's not actually a change in their tactics of intimidation and indiscriminate apprehension.”
The Intercept has a similar report today. Minneapolis ICE operations may be making less news now, but the reality is that ICE operations may have gone up.
The president had tapped Homan to head the mission a week earlier, appointing the former ICE acting director to take over from Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, whose heavy-handed tactics culminated in three shootings in three weeks, including the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Homan has vowed to take a more “targeted” line of attack in Minnesota. His announced drawdown has fueled speculation that the civil rights abuses and unlawful arrests documented in viral videos and court filings during Bovino’s tenure may be coming to an end. On the ground, the feeling is quite different.
In a message circulated among commuters Friday, the community group Defrost MN, which uses crowdsourced data to track federal immigration operations, warned residents of an “uptick in abductions” — which refer to arrests of both immigrant community members and legal observers — following Homan’s takeover and an increase in the number of government personnel and vehicles involved in those operations.
“National attention on Minnesota has waned with the departure of Bovino and rhetoric by Homan that things are de-escalating,” the group noted, but recent data and reports from commuters in the field did not support those conclusions. Despite orders to the contrary, the group continued, “Agents continue to draw their weapons and deploy chemical agents against observers.”
Attention has waned because most progressives weren't really interested in the migrants, they were interested in the resistance politics and standing up to the Trump administration. Now that they have their win (according to people like Jonathan Chait) they have tuned Minneapolis out. The media has moved on to something else, but in reality not much has changed on the ground. ICE is still picking up illegal immigrants in Minneapolis and there's still not much Gov. Walz or Mayor Frey can do about it.
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