DHS’ role questioned as immigration officers flood US cities
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 6 hours ago
- 4 min read
By HAMED ALEAZIZ
In November 2002, President George W. Bush signed a bill creating a federal agency devoted to protecting the United States. The country was still reeling from the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, and the threat of international terrorism permeated public life.
Among the agencies that would be included in the Department of Homeland Security, as it would be called, would be Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — the parts of the government most responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws.
“The new department will analyze threats, will guard our borders and airports, protect our critical infrastructure, and coordinate the response of our nation for future emergencies,” Bush said at the time, adding that the department would “focus the full resources of the American government on the safety of the American people.”
But more than two decades later, as thousands of ICE and Border Patrol officers flood Minneapolis, some Democratic leaders say the department’s role appears to have strayed far from its original purpose, turning its tools of enforcement away from external threats and toward President Donald Trump’s domestic critics.
They say enforcement has looked more like an occupation, as officers in helmets and tactical gear have faced off against hostile residents and left-wing protesters in Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Chicago and Washington. The interactions, broadcast to the world through social media videos filmed by protesters and federal agents alike, have given the impression of a government at war with the country’s own cities.
DHS “was designed to protect Americans from threats, and what we’ve essentially done is, in some cases, we’ve turned that agency on Americans,” said Mayor Keith Wilson of Portland, a Democrat. “It’s deeply unsettling.”
Wilson said he was concerned that federal immigration enforcement activities could lead to a shooting like the one in Minneapolis that took the life of Renee Good, a 37-year-old protester fatally shot by an ICE officer. Hours after his comments, Border Patrol agents shot two Venezuelan nationals who had rammed their vehicle, the department said. The Venezuelans survived their injuries, and one was charged in connection with the incident.
More than two decades after its formation, DHS is the government’s largest law enforcement agency, with around 250,000 employees. It includes many functions that are not directly part of the turmoil on the ground, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the agency that oversees airport security.
Yet even those agencies have come under pressure to meet Trump’s political objectives, with the airport security agency providing information to immigration agents and Trump trying to redirect disaster funding away from states not cooperating with his deportation goals.
ICE’s budget increased dramatically because of the sweeping domestic policy bill the president signed into law in July, making it the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.
Under Trump, the department also redirected thousands of agents from their normal duties to focus on arresting immigrants lacking permanent legal status, a New York Times investigation found last year.
The Trump administration and officials in some of the targeted cities have used militaristic language to describe the conflict unfolding on the ground.
A lawsuit filed last week by Minnesota described the recent deployment of thousands of immigration agents and officers as “a federal invasion of the Twin Cities.”
“I see it as a personal militarized police force for the president to do his bidding against people who don’t see the world through the lens of the ultra rich,” said Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, a Democrat.
Trump has recently raised the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy the military to suppress rebellions and enforce federal laws. On Tuesday, he said on social media that Minnesotans should expect more action in their state, and that the “DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING.”
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, has called Chicago a “war zone,” and said the agency had made parts of the city “much more free.” In recent weeks, the department has described Minnesota as a place where there was “rampant fraud and criminality happening.”
“We would love to have the cooperation of these politicians to remove the worst of the worst from their cities,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson, said in a statement. “Instead, they refuse to protect their own citizens and let these criminals roam free on their streets.”
Supporters of the department’s stepped-up role on immigration enforcement this year say the surge of officers in cities has made the country safer by rounding up violent criminals. They say voters endorsed decisive action on immigration when they elected Trump, who has repeatedly criticized “sanctuary cities” that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. He has pledged to be more aggressive.
“What these mayors are asking DHS to do is not really an option,” said Chad Wolf, an acting homeland security secretary during the first Trump administration. “The majority of American people said, ‘We don’t want that America. We actually want criminal illegal aliens arrested and removed, as well as others.’”
Some law enforcement officials who have had productive relationships with federal authorities in the past have watched the new DHS approach with concern.
“The biggest question that I’ve been receiving is: How will we intercede if there’s a conflict between community members and DHS?” Shon Barnes, Seattle’s chief of police, said in an interview last fall. “Who will we side with? What will we do?”
The answer, Barnes said, was that the department would “keep the peace.”