DHS Unleashes Immigration Agents on Protesters, Cries 'Lack of Training'
AP notes federal immigration agents, usually tasked with arrests and deportations, deployed 'aggressive crowd-control tactics' in Minneapolis, citing 'training gaps.' This isn't a training gap; it's a feature. From the Palmer Raids to COINTELPRO, federal agencies have a long, documented history of mission creep, repurposing domestic enforcement arms against dissent. The DHS, born from post-9/11
fear, has consistently expanded its mandate beyond borders, with ICE and CBP increasingly acting as domestic paramilitary forces—often with less public oversight than local police. (Why are we surprised when the hammer of deportation acts like a hammer on peaceful protesters?) The fact that this deployment escalated to the fatal shooting of Renee Good, as vaguely mentioned by AP, highlights the
manufactured 'risk' when you send agents trained for foreign threats or detaining migrants into civilian protests. One might wonder if the 'lack of training' is merely a bureaucratic excuse for a deliberate strategy: use agents with maximum force authorization, minimum public relations training, and no local accountability to suppress inconvenient public displays. It's not about public safety;
it's about chilling dissent under the guise of 'protecting officers.' But who protects the public from the protectors when their primary mission isn't even policing citizens?