Tag Archives: ICE

national news

Tillis makes his point with DHS boss

Thom Tillis was pissed off — as in royally pissed off — when his time arrived to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before a U.S. Senate committee.

I watched a bit of Tillis’s performance, and I have to tell you, the North Carolina Republican brought his A-game to the hearing. He believes Noem is incompetent and doesn’t deserve to be in the job she holds. He wants Donald Trump to remove her if she doesn’t quit. If that won’t happen, he wants the House to impeach her.

Tillis is angry over the behavior of Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons who have been arresting children in schools, U.S. citizens and other on suspicion that they might be out to do harm to Americans. What a crock of bull dookey!

Here, though, is another remarkable aspect of Tillis’s remarks to Noem. The DHS secretary took it. She absorbed the blows quietly. She didn’t fire back with filibuster-like responses. There were no insults hurled at Tillis from the witness chair. She didn’t lie to suggest that ICE thugs were acting appropriately.

I only can conclude that unlike the Democratic members of Congress who have challenged Noem’s handling of this immigration matter, Republican members are getting the respect they deserve … and which all members of either party deserve when they question witnesses who take an oath to tell the truth.

Other appearances by Noem and other Cabinet honchos have been exercises in futility as Democrats and witnesses talk — and scream — over each other. The hearing I watched today was educational, given that Kristi Noem knew her place in the moment and reacted accordingly … for once!

national news, national security

Border crisis need not produce this solution

Critics of this blog have long accused its author — that would be me — of being a “yes man” to all policies Democratic and a “hatchet man” to ideas that come from Republicans.

Wrong! As in really wrong!

I was the rare President Biden supporter who said long ago that the president needed to call the situation along our southern border what I believed it was: a crisis. He refused to do so. Instead, the president masked the situation in gauzy terms meant to disguise the reality along our southern flank, which was that people were continuing to seek refuge in the “land of opportunity, freedom and good fortune.”

Donald Trump came along and then sicced the Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons on our cities and border towns. The result of their heavy hand has made us even less safe. I want, therefore, to declare that Trump’s answer to the crisis is the wrong answer.

If the current POTUS had an ounce of compassion coursing through his overfed body he would have told the ICE agents to use extreme discernment in rooting out the bad guys. He didn’t. The ICE goons have picked up on the message from the top, which is that it’s OK to roust everyone, to beat many of them to within an inch of their lives, to separate children from their parents.

I like quoting one of my favorite philosophers, who happens to be fictional character on a once-popular TV show. You remember Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s sidekick who used to tell the world that “Two wrongs don’t make it right.”

Tonto is correct. It was wrong for President Biden to avoid declaring the southern border mess a “crisis.” It is wrong for Donald Trump to hire heavily armed and masked thugs to beat the living daylights out of U.S. citizens while searching for criminals.

It no longer matters what we call the border mess. We can fix the second problem and force ICE to rethink the way it enforces the law.

State news

Trump Country turns anti-ICE

I won’t be coy about stating what I believe is the obvious, which is that I live in the heart of Trump Country but this heart is not beating in favor of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement goons.

All those demonstrations we are seeing across the country have been full of protesters in Texas. It makes me proud of the state I have called home for the past 42 years.

Texans have accepted the reality that it is wrong for hooded, masked, heavily armed thugs to arrest children, bully U.S. citizens and then seek to install prison camps holding thousands of undocumented U.S. residents in peaceful communities.

We want no part of that. Nor do we want to endorse the heavy hand Donald Trump is deploying to look for criminals who, by and large, do not even exist.

What I believe we are witnessing in Texas is the piece-by-piece dismantling of the coalition that Trump managed to cobble together to win two elections to the White House.

His insistence that ICE is behaving properly only lends fuel to the argument that his critics are building. I’m glad to see Texas playing a key part in that particular drama.

crime news, Donald Trump

ICE needs to lose the masks

I am going to make another run at a topic I raised a while ago, but it’s important enough to repeat.

What’s more, I have found some help in a high place to further the argument I want to make … which is that Immigration and Customs Enforcement thugs need to get rid of the masks and start enforcing immigration laws with humanity, not brutality.

Gordon Sondlund was U.S. ambassador to the European Union from 2008 to 2020. He supports Donald Trump’s view that immigration laws need to be enforced vigorously. Frankly — and don’t be surprised — so do I. However, the implementation of that policy has gone far into the weeds, off the rails. ICE agents have gone too damn far in enforcing the law.

They are hiding behind masks. “A confident nation does not hide its face when it enforces its laws,” Sondlund writes in an essay published today by the Dallas Morning News. “It does so openly and stands behind what it does.”

ICE goons are deployed in Democratically controlled cities by Trump to ferret out what Trump says are criminals who are here illegally, preying on innocent victims. They have beaten U.S. citizens, arrested them, separated children from their parents. They have shot at least two Americans to death. They are donning flak vests, camo outfits, all the equipment they need to restrain individuals. They are behaving like bullies.

Homeland security officials say the agents are covering their faces to protect them from reprisals. What an utter case of bullsh**!

Sondlund writes, “If officer safety is the concern, the solution is professionalism, not concealment. ICE agents should display their names or badge numbers clearly. All operations should include body cameras with audio, activated as a matter of policy. Local police … operate under these standards every day. Federal immigration enforcement should do no less.”

U.S. law enforcement operates in the open, Sondlund writes. “Authority is not hidden,” he states. An open approach to law enforcement “is not a concession to critics; it is a core feature of legitimate governance,” he declares.

He said, though, that “masks erode that legitimacy. They transform lawful enforcement into something that appears secretive and militarized. They invite comparisons the administration does not want and does not deserve.”

There you have it. Just lose the damn masks, ICE, and treat the people you serve with humanity. I could bet real American money such a change would bring far more cooperation than condemnation.

national news

ICE is making me very angry!

The more images I see of immigration thugs roughing up American citizens while searching for people to deport to Timbuktu, the angrier I become.

The testimony of Americans victimized by these goons is piling up. They have killed at least two Americans who were protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics. One of them, Alex Pretti, was shot at least 10 times by ICE goons while lying face down on the pavement. He was motionless.

These tales of horror are going on unabated. The president of the United States is saying nothing about the mistreatment being leveled against U.S. citizens. Donald Trump and his chief aides are condemning the protesters who, I should mention, are acting within the rights of free speech and expression guarenteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Yet this repression continues. ICE is kidnapping children, separating them from their parents. ICE agents dressed like hooded and masked goons are injuring Americans because they are operating with the full endorsement of the dipshit in chief.

I am not one to march in the street to protest. I prefer to make my protests known through this venue. I speak often and with considerable passion about what I perceive to be the wrong direction we are heading. If I see more ICE continue to harangue Americans in this horrific fashion, I just might be tempted to join a protest against ICE.

These goons have gone too far.

crime news

It’s the masks, man … the masks

Of all the issues surrounding the deployment of federal goons disguised as immigration agents, one issue stands out as particularly troubling to this American patriot.

It’s the use of masks to hide the identity of these brutes as they arrest folks on suspicion that they might be here illegally or worse, up to no good at all.

I heard a Donald Trump administration official explain the reason for the masks, which generally are pullover cloths meant to cover all but the eyes. You’ve seen ’em, right? They cover the faces of heavily armed men who are packing guns, stun devices, cuffs and/or zip ties and are wearing flak jackets under their camo shirts. They wear the masks to protect officers against angry protesters,  the explanation goes.

They present a frightening profile of individuals on orders from the top of the federal chain of command to round up crooks, killers and assorted bad guys. Except too many of them have been law-abiding U.S. citizens. And, yes, a couple of them have died after being shot by these goons.

I am trying to square this method of policing by intimidation with what I see every day in the North Texas community where I live and in neighboring cities and towns throughout the area. I see officers engaging in what they call “community policing,” where police interact one-on-one with residents, building trust between taxpayers and The Man. Princeton police engage in a regular session that includes walks through neighborhoods with residents, giving them a chance to ask questions of the cops.

I want to draw that parallel because we are told that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are being deployed to “enforce the law.” Their tactics, though, run totally counter to the type of police work I see almost daily in the city where I live. We’re on a first-name basis with many of the police who patrol our streets. In places at this moment like Minneapolis, ICE agents are hiding behind masks … and presenting an image of intimidation and fear.

The ICE presence is, to say the least, an astonishingly bad look for the agency and the officers who now are feeling the rage of a community under siege.

crime news

Hold it, masked men!

Ask yourself this question, which I believe is pertinent to the issues discussion we are having these days in the U.S. of A.

How would I feel if I were stopped by a burly dude, armed to the teeth, wearing a flak jacket, with the word “ICE” emblazoned on his chest … and all the while he is hiding his face behind a pullover mask that only reveals his eyes?

My first response? I would be scared feces-less at the sight. I wouldn’t know what to say to any question this fellow might pose.

Now, look, under normal circumstances I couldn’t care less what a law enforcement professional is wearing. These days it’s different, so I am going to comment briefly on the public relations image these ICE agents are presenting to a public that has grown angry at their presence.

ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has become a stand-alone word, kinda like MAGA and FUBAR.

These agents charged with finding undocumented immigrants, arresting them and then deporting them present a frightening image not just to those on their target list but to anyone, even those with nothing to fear.

It’s the masks, man, that give these guys their intimidating image.

I guess it must be the type of image Donald Trump wants to project, given his own stated admiration for world leaders who govern with an iron hand. He wishes he could do so in the United States, except for the Constitution that limits the power of the president.

As one of millions of Americans who are paying for this dog-and-pony show, I just have to declare my own disgust at the image these ICE agents are projecting while terrorizing fellow human beings. Those who are being terrorized deserve to see the faces of those who are bullying them.

Uncategorized

Ohhh … the lack of humanity!

Donald Trump’s lack of humanity, grace and forgiveness are on full display with every eruption of politically inspired violence that erupts in communities across this land of ours.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot a woman to death as she was fleeing a scene in her car. The jury is still out on whether the ICE officer committed a murderous act or whether he acted in self-defense. The video evidence suggests strongly the former.

The woman was the mother of three small children. She was present to protest ICE’s rounding up of residents for possible deportation. Minneapolis has been shaken to its muncipal core.

So, where is Trump? Has he weighed in with a comment expressing any sort of concern for the children of the woman whose death has left them as orphans? He hasn’t even offered a tepid platitude expressing regret over the incident.

One of the unwritten rules that falls on every president is to lend some level of comfort in times of tragedy, or duress, or tumult. Someone who gets shot to death by an agent of the government, it seems to me, is one of those tragic events that requires a president to step up and say something — anything! — that could lend a modicum of comfort to the nation.

He is silent while chief White House aides and at least two Cabinet officials have determined that the ICE officer was defending himself … against a woman who was driving away from him.

The current POTUS didn’t deliver. No, I am not surprised. I am still angered.

media news, national news

Change of heart on pledge

A few years ago — I cannot remember precisely when — I pledged to no longer make a resolution to begin the new year.

Why promise to do something that I didn’t expect to be able to do, or so I thought in the moment. Today I am taking back that pledge and declaring a new year resolution for 2026. I believe I can keep this one alive and functioning. I am pledging to use High Plains Blogger to make life as miserable as possible for Donald J. Trump, his administration of yes men and women and the MAGA crowd that remains loyal (for reasons that escape me) to the pretender in chief. I am acutely aware that my reach is somewhat limited. I don’t have a huge audience that reads my rants. I’ll start by asking those who do read them and who agree with my view that Trump is a threat to this country, that he is unfit for the office he occupies and he must be stopped … well, you can share those thoughts on your social media network of friends and acquaintances. Those of you who read this blog but who continue to support the dipshit in chief, you can react to my rants any way you see fit. It’s your call. I’ll be commenting throughout the year on issues that present themselves. My immediate aim is to flip the U.S. House from Republican to Democrat when the ballots are counted for the midterm election. One more word on this issue. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents knock on my door, I’ll have my birth certificate and passport handy to prove that I am an American patriot who has read the Constitution … and who understands the free speech liberty it grants for all citizens of this great country.
local news, national security, State news

Border madness must be handled

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I am going to concede that conditions on our nation’s southern border need attention, they need serious repair, they need an administration that is willing to get tougher than it has been so far.

A neighbor of mine is a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who is leaving soon for a temporary-duty assignment southeast of Laredo.

He describes the situation on the border as “an out of control mess.”

My neighbor blames President Biden’s administration for it. He didn’t say so directly, but I believe he endorsed the Donald Trump administration policy of rounding up undocumented immigrants, fast-tracking their status while being held and then sending them back to the country from which they fled.

The Biden administration approach is more an “open border” matter. I reminded him that the border isn’t “open” and that Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are stopping illegal immigration every single day.

He acknowledged that but said that the Biden administration’s more tolerant policy is enticing people to flee to this country.

I get that Joe Biden has taken a dramatically different approach to undocumented immigration than the one used by his immediate predecessor. However, I will not accept the notion that our borders are “open” and available for anyone to enter this country.

My neighbor, though, is joining other DPS troopers to assist local and federal law enforcement officials in doing their job. He believes this DPS involvement will last a while, that the situation along our border is too grave to clear up over the short term.

He is a bright young man. I will accept his diagnosis of the problem.

However, I am going to swallow the hook that contends that an “open border policy” is to blame for it.

This matter needs a concerted federal and state effort to resolve. I am going to hold out hope that Gov. Greg Abbott will resist the temptation to hurl blame and insults and will get to working with the president and his team to resolve this matter.