Trump’s 'assault' on Americans marks the 'beginning of a wider war': analysis

Early Tuesday morning, September 30, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and others carried out a militarized raid on an apartment complex on Chicago's South Side. Doors were broken down, and terrorized residents were placed in zip-tie handcuffs (plasticuffs) for hours, including children. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), under Secretary Kristi Noem, is claiming that members of Venezuela's dangerous Tren de Aragua gang were inside the building, yet many of the people detained were African-American and obviously weren't in the United States illegally.

In an article published on October 6, The New Republic's Alex Shephard emphasizes that the raid should not be viewed as an isolated incident, but rather, as an indication that President Donald Trump is ramping up his "extralegal assault" on civil liberties both in the United States and abroad.

"'It felt like we were under siege' — that's how Darrell Ballard, a 63-year-old Chicago resident, described a massive federal raid on a South Side apartment complex on Tuesday that involved a swarm of drones, snipers rappelling from helicopters, and hundreds of heavily armed agents," Shephard explains. "They stormed the building, breaking down doors and igniting flashbang grenades, and pulled out dozens of residents — some of whom were naked children, and many of whom were U.S. citizens…. Two days after federal agents turned a peaceful apartment complex in Chicago into a war zone, Donald Trump informed Congress that he had 'determined' that drug cartels operating in foreign countries are 'nonstate armed groups' and 'unlawful combatants,' whose actions 'constitute an armed attack against the United States.'"

Shephard adds, "Trump was declaring war, in other words, and providing the same post-9/11 rationale used for taking out terrorists to justify repeated airstrikes on small Venezuelan vessels in the Caribbean that have left several dead. The administration has claimed, again without providing evidence, that these ships are carrying drugs — not that the presence of drugs would warrant obliterating them, the administration's legal contortions notwithstanding."

Shephard fears that "the awesome power being wielded against Venezuelans" by the Trump Administration "may one day be wielded against what Trump calls 'the enemy within' — and justified on similar grounds."

"It's becoming clear that the administration's extralegal assault on immigrant communities was just the beginning of a wider war, one that lately has targeted anyone — from the street to the TV screen — who dares criticize the regime," Shephard warns. "Trump and his cronies have targeted media and entertainment companies, with the president filing baseless lawsuits against organizations like The New York Times (which is fighting) and CBS (which folded) — the goal being to cow them, and by extension their entire industries, into submission…. Wired reported that ICE was assembling a 20-person team to monitor social media to target people — presumably critics — for deportation, and Apple, in yet another blow to free speech, announced it was removing apps used to track ICE raids in communities, accepting the administration's baseless claim that it endangered the agents' safety."

Shephard continues, "That argument — that criticizing ICE's gestapo tactics amounts to a physical threat — is absurd, but it is increasingly being used to justify crackdowns on administration critics…. Speaking to hundreds of military commanders on Tuesday, Trump hinted that he plans on expanding his crackdown to target administration critics, activists, and pretty much anyone else who dares speak out against a corrupt and increasingly murderous president."

Read Alex Shephard's full article for The New Republic at this link.