The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol are doing exactly what President Donald Trump said they would be doing in Minneapolis – going after criminal illegal aliens to make the community safer.
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledges that many individuals there have been arrested for their involvement in non-violent crimes, but the focus has been on the "worst of the worst," including individuals convicted of murder, child sex offenses, rape, serious domestic violence, major drug trafficking, and repeat violent crimes, including some with dozens of prior convictions.
Still, protestors claim the Trump administration is targeting "neighbors of color" and sending children to "concentration camps." With daily confrontations between ICE and protesters and two tragic deaths, the president is losing the PR battle.
A New York Times/Siena national poll finds 61% of voters say ICE's tactics have "gone too far."
News analyst Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center gives the mainstream media credit for that.
"The media are definitely playing into the kind of heckler's veto," he tells AFN. "They're relying on emotion."
CNN's Garrett Graff, for example, recently said, "Virtually every scene that you can find online, the violence is being done only by the ICE and CBP officers."
Houck says they have to ignore context to present anti-ICE protesters as innocent victims. Alex Pretti, who reportedly had a separate confrontation with federal agents about a week prior to his death, was killed because he pointed a loaded firearm at agents. The media says it was a phone.
In Renee Good's case, the woman was seen mocking ICE officers before trying to run one over. The media has deified her as a purely loving wife and mother.
But as long as viewers stay in their "silos," Houck says they will see what they are told to see.
"We don't live in the same realities," he laments. "When we watch a video, we don't see the same thing."
Trump gives A-team the reins
Art Arthur, a resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, says dispatching Border Czar Tom Homan to oversee ICE operations in Minneapolis was a great move.
President Trump says his border czar will take over for Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who has drawn condemnation for claiming Alex Pretti had been planning to "massacre" law enforcement officers – a characterization that authorities had not substantiated.
"The president has taken a look at the facts, taken a look at what people are saying, including members of his own party, and he's decided to send in the A-team," Arthur comments.
Bovino is likely returning to his role as chief patrol agent of California's El Centro sector.
"That's his job; it's a crucial job," says Arthur. "It's a very important sector, one that sees a lot of alien smugglers, drug smugglers, cartel activity, and it's crucial that he be back there."
He does not think this decision should be viewed as anything other than an attempt by the Trump administration to gain complete control over what has proven to be a crucial operation in Minnesota.
In 2015, while serving as the executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations at ICE, President Barack Obama awarded Homan the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service, one of the nation's highest honors for career civil servants recognizing sustained extraordinary results.
Now, supporters see his arrival in Minnesota as a stabilizing step, while critics — including local leaders, civil rights advocates, and some lawmakers — view it as a symbolic and inadequate move.
