Trump’s immigration crackdown ‘invites danger’, sparking violent confrontations
The contentious encounters stem from a dramatic shift in the approach to immigration enforcement, current and former officials say
US President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown increasingly is sparking violent confrontations with both migrants and American citizens, a development grimly underscored by an ICE officer’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman this week.
Under Trump’s orders to ramp up deportations, masked immigration officers have surged into Democratic-led cities, sprayed tear gas in residential streets, tackled people in car parks and pointed guns at bystanders trying to film them.
A federal officer in Minneapolis dragged a woman through a snowy street in an incident last month that the city’s police chief called an “egregious disregard for human dignity”.
These contentious encounters, which have come amid a push to quickly recruit and train thousands of new officers, have stemmed from a dramatic shift in the approach to immigration enforcement, according to current and former immigration officials.
The White House demanded a steep increase in immigration arrests in late May, leading officers to change tactics, embracing showy sweeps over more targeted arrests of people with serious criminal records. Since then, officers have been met with more public backlash and resistance, at times creating tense stand-offs.
“It’s this high-visibility, high-footprint, high-contact form of operation that invites danger,” said former ICE official Scott Shuchart, who served in Joe Biden’s administration.