We now see masked ICE agents and U.S. Marines and soldiers at a cost of $134 million strong-arming generally peaceful crowds protesting an ICE crackdown on dozens of hard-working day laborers seeking work in front of a Home Depot. This action in a small area of downtown Los Angeles was being adequately controlled by the L.A. Police Department. There was no need for the heavy-handed military interference in this Hispanic-majority city.
Trump appears to have given free reign to racist members of his administration, especially Stephen Miller and Tom Homan. Trump has repeatedly used rhetoric that paints immigrants, particularly those entering through the southern border, as “animals and terrorists,” often using inflammatory and dehumanizing language.
Instead of using brown-skinned immigrants as a red herring, ICE should be attacking the real cause of domestic terrorism in this country. Domestic terrorism consists of acts or attempted acts of terrorism in which the perpetrators are citizens or long-time residents of the United States and are not members or agents of foreign or international terrorist organizations. White Supremacists are considered the top domestic terrorism threat, driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race and often engaging in violence against minorities.
Recent statistics indicate that right-wing extremist terrorism, including white supremacist violence, is the prime domestic threat in the United States. Right-wing extremist terror incidents in the U.S. have been increasing since the mid-2000s. There were just seven right-wing terror incidents in the period 2005-2007, but by 2017-2019 there were 27, which increased to 40 in 2020-2022.
According to an analysis by the Cato Institute, the annual chance of being murdered in an attack committed by an illegal immigrant is zero. So any likely terrorist in America is not the undocumented person seeking a better life for their family. The most likely terrorist is home-grown here in the good old USA.
Given this reality, who does Trump put in charge of the Department of Homeland Security overseeing the government’s main hub for combating domestic terrorism? A 22-year-old former gardener. In the past several months, at least five high-profile targeted attacks have unfolded across the U.S., including a car bombing in California and the gunning down of two Israeli Embassy aides in Washington.
Against this backdrop, current and former national security officials say, the Trump administration’s decision to shift counter-terrorism resources to immigration and leave the violence-prevention portfolio to inexperienced appointees is “reckless.” It is as clearly reckless just as it is clearly racist. The government’s own analyses and statistics show the brown-skinned person seeking a better life has “zero” chance of committing an act of terrorism. Instead of wasting over $100 million dollars using the U.S. military to threaten American citizens, use it to go after the real terrorists living among us.
Trump’s actions clearly show his racist motivations and his disregard for the real threats to all U.S. citizens. The move toward military based authoritarianism points to a dark and dangerous future. Remember Kent State.
Larry Kerschner
Centralia
