Trump Is Planning a Nationwide Crackdown Targeting Blue Cities

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Trump Is Planning a Nationwide Crackdown Targeting Blue Cities - The New Republic

The Trump administration is readying tactical ICE units known as “special response teams” to conduct large raids in five Democratic cities, according to MSNBC. They will be in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and northern Virginia. While it’s unclear when exactly the raids will start, all ICE agents in those areas have been told to stand by.

This is going to be a mess. Trump’s crackdown in Los Angeles—with thousands of National Guardsmen and hundreds of Marines patrolling the streets—is the model for his larger deportation campaign: Have ICE pour into a community and make indiscriminate arrests, then when civilians predictably resist, use that to justify sending even more militant forces in to quell the chaos that ICE induced. New York City is already on edge, as 80 protestors were arrested in Lower Manhattan Tuesday night at an anti-ICE protest.

“’Look, this isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles, when Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. He made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.’”