The US is on the brink of major unrest in cities like Chicago and Portland, as Trump steamrolls all opposition
In the unprecedented pantheon of loyalty and fealty that serves as the hallmark of Donald Trump’s government, no figure manages to prostrate herself more than Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Dubbed “ICE Barbie” by her detractors, the former Governor of South Dakota saw her own presidential aspirations destroyed last year when she disclosed that she had once killed her own puppy.
Today, Noem is championing Trump’s programme of mass deportations and refusing to allow anyone or anything to stand in the way of the masked men and women of ICE, the government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Noem’s attention is now firmly fixed on two major cities run by Democrats. In Portland and Chicago, she has already unleashed ICE, but is now threatening to deploy agents from every branch of government, including the Department of War.
Tensions in both cities are rapidly rising, as protestors trying to shut ICE operations down become increasingly emboldened. ICE agents, in return, are becoming ever more aggressive, firing tear gas and pepper spray at demonstrators. Their unrestrained aggression towards the detainees they seize off the streets also continues apace.
In Chicago, a flashpoint is coming. Trump has authorised an initial deployment of 300 members of the Illinois National Guard, in direct defiance of the state’s Governor JB Pritzker, a prominent Democrat.
On Saturday, Pritzker said that Trump had warned him to “call up your troops, or we will”. Pritzker described the President’s action as “absolutely outrageous and un-American”, and along with Chicago’s locally elected officials, he argued there is no need for military forces to be patrolling the city.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities”.
“Pritzker probably doesn’t understand what we’re doing. It’s way over his head”, Gregory Bovino, commander at large of the Border Patrol, witheringly told News Nation television on Saturday.
“This is just the beginning”, he vowed. “We’re gonna roll on and on, we’re gonna turn and burn… he can either get on board, or watch from the sidelines”, said the unelected Bovino of the state’s top elected official.
As scenes in Chicago and Portland become ever more incendiary, the possibility is growing that entirely unnecessary deaths will occur as a result of the military force taking to the streets.
In Chicago on Friday, local councillor Jessie Fuentes was violently arrested at an area hospital as she attempted to protect the constitutional rights of a man who had suffered a broken leg after being chased by ICE agents. After being released from custody, Fuentes accused ICE of threatening her with “arrest because I’m exercising my constitutional right to ask a question”.
In Portland on Saturday, multiple arrests were made in chaotic scenes outside the main ICE detention centre in the city. Protestors carrying signs reading “STOP KIDNAPPING MY NEIGBORS” were roughed up by heavily armed federal agents defending the ICE facility. Tear gas and smoke canisters were also used in an effort to disperse the crowds.
Late that night, a federal judge temporarily halted Trump’s deployment of 200 National Guard troops in Portland.
Judge Karin Immergut wrote in her ruling that “this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law”. She accused government lawyers of making “arguments that if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power, to the detriment of this nation”.
Oregon’s Attorney General Dan Rayfield described the ruling as “an important wake-up call for the United States President”. But Trump shows no sign of being stopped in his tracks, even by court orders.
On Sunday, he took to social media to order any federal government agent immediately to detain anyone found burning the Stars and Stripes. “Please be advised that from this point forward, anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison. You will be immediately arrested”, the President warned, riding roughshod over Supreme Court rulings that have found flag burning to be a constitutionally-protected exercise in free speech.
Noem sought to adopt a similarly irascible tone on Saturday as she toured Chicago and visited a new facility being prepared to house ICE detainees in the Windy City. She was accompanied by pro-Trump podcaster Benny Johnson, who asked Noem: “What’s your message to leftists who want to be violent in America today?”
“Leave the country. We don’t want you. We’ll put you in jail”, said the Secretary of Homeland Security, throwing another dangerous spark on America’s tinderbox.
