ICE violence: escalating tensions in the US?
Agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency have shot and killed a person in Minneapolis for the second time within a month. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, the officers were acting in self-defence. However video footage broadcast by US media shows no evidence that the victim, intensive care nurse Alex Pretti, had threatened them with a weapon. Europe's media fear a dangerous spiral of violence.
Trump counting on riots
Trump is looking a way to avoid the midterms, La Tribune de Genève surmises:
“The White House's stubbornness is clearly motivated by the desire to postpone or even cancel the midterms under the pretext of a state of emergency. After all, having the divided Americans go back to the polls can only harm the all-powerful Trump, whose only limit is his own morality. In this context, the anti-ICE activists who are starting to arm themselves are playing into Trump's hands. The president is just waiting for riots to prove him right.”
Democrats whipping up public emotion
Trump's political opponents are exacerbating the confrontation with ICE for their own purposes, The Times is sure:
“There's clear evidence that public emotion has been whipped up, to some extent at least, by distorted or decontextualised reports of ICE agents' behaviour. Several commentators have observed that these protests actually constitute a low-level insurgency – an organised attempt to impede law enforcement and provoke an overreaction, all with a clear political agenda. ... ICE has been identified, in short, as a hostile occupying force to be repelled and driven out. This is being incited and encouraged by Minnesota's Democrat rulers.”
The opposition deserves support
Europe – and the Netherlands in particular – must react now, De Volkskrant urges:
“In other countries with authoritarian leaders, the Netherlands establishes contact with dissidents or the opposition in order to support the resistance and express its dissatisfaction in diplomatic terms. ... This country [the US], which does not protect its own citizens, despises European countries that want to protect their citizens through rules and laws. Soon, during the World Cup, these European countries will be able to show off their tricks, only to be laughed at again afterwards. The question is whether the American people are served by this propaganda.”
Dangerous polarisation in Poland, too
Krytyka Polityczna voices concern about Poland in view of the situation in the US:
“We haven't reached that point here in Poland yet, emotions are not running as high. But it's clear that this is coming our way too. Our right wing is already justifying ICE's actions, which hark back to those of the state thugs known as Ormo during the communist era. ... Poland's liberals, on the other hand, are secretly dreaming of revenge and of putting the entire right behind bars. The discussion is becoming increasingly difficult because the brain increasingly filters and represses information, providing a rational explanation for every misdeed committed by its own people. At some point, someone has to say 'stop'. Perhaps this will still be possible in Poland.”
A storm is brewing
Die Zeit voices concern about what comes next:
“There are those who talk of counter-violence. ... Of armed left-wing groups across the United States preparing for battle. These are dizzying moments. A president who knows no boundaries. Masked men who are accountable to no one. A city that is fighting back with dignity and solidarity. And a small number of radical left-wing activists who no longer seem bound by the principle of non-violence. This kind of situation, so complex and dangerous, is what you call a perfect storm.”
Brutality creates resistance
The Trump administration is making two serious mistakes, news website Liberal surmises:
“First, it is underestimating the scale of the problem. It's one thing to protect borders, but quite another to remove millions of people as they go about their lives in the cities. ... Deporting illegal immigrants is not something that can be achieved with 'a little more determination'. It's a completely different kind of measure, with enormous costs and enormous potential for tragedy. ... Secondly, a show of force is no substitute for legitimacy. When law enforcement looks like a military raid, when the use of force is more of a reflex than a last resort, the government is not 'enforcing' order. It is creating resistance.”
A vehicle for centralising power
The brutal and massive deployment of ICE agents is clarifying Trump's real goal, says Dagens Nyheter:
“It is obvious that he would like to centralise control over the law enforcement agencies. He is always trying to deploy the National Guard, but these attempts are rejected by the courts. The ICE is being used as a kind of brutal substitute. In any case, it's clear that the president sees the ICE as a major asset. Either people submit – or there will be confrontations that give Trump the opportunity to portray himself as a man of law and order and justify further measures.”
Live death of a democracy
Le Soir draws parallels with events in Iran:
“Renée and Alex – these citizens, these protesters – are being shot point-blank in the streets today, not in Tehran, but in Minneapolis. Their masked and unidentified killers are not sent by an Ayatollah, but by the American federal government. ...Each time they are acquitted without investigation or trial. ... Need we point out that it was Donald Trump himself who threatened the Iranians with missile strikes if they killed even one of their demonstrators? What is unfolding before our eyes is the live death of a democracy and the rise of a dictatorship at the helm of the world's leading power.”
A turning point for voters?
For the Frankfurter Rundschau, the latest case has the potential to shift sentiment against Trump's migration policy:
“Even some of his supporters are now questioning the use of ICE. ... However, such a defeat for Trump would weigh more heavily than the backtracking on Greenland. On the one hand, foreign policy issues are less relevant in the US. On the other hand, migration policy is an essential component of Trump's politics. If this domino falls, it could prompt voters in the US to reassess Trump's policies, which can only be to his disadvantage.”