George Will torches Trump officials for putting US Army vets through 'appalling' ordeal

Although many right-wing media outlets are aggressively defending President Donald Trump's immigration policies, not everyone on the right has a favorable view of the draconian U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids being carried out all around the United States.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, a Never Trump conservative and former GOP congressman, is highly critical of the tactics used in the raids. And veteran Washington Post opinion journalist George Will describes the raids as egregious overreach in his October 24 column.

The 84-year-old Will, who left the Republican Party in 2016, makes his point by describing the recent ordeal of 26-year-old George Retes — who was detained by ICE agents despite being a U.S. citizen and a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq. Retes did not move to the U.S. from another country, but rather, was born in Ventura-California and grew up on the West Coast. And his mother was born in Ventura as well.

"One Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent's knee was on his neck, another's was grinding his back," Will explains. "Drenched with teargas and pepper spray, George Retes might have wished that his 137 pounds were back in Kirkuk, Iraq, one of his Army deployments. Herewith a glimpse of your tax dollars at work."

According to Will, Retes was detained by ICE agents on July 10 when they raided the agriculture plant where he works.

"ICE agents wearing gas masks — indicators of their dispositions — were blocking entry, he recounts, saying the plant was not operating," Will writes. "This was not the last ICE lie. The ICEmen were presumably looking for undocumented immigrants…. Amid a torrent of shouted and contradictory ICEmen commands, and after he asked for an agent's badge number, he says, Retes was dragged from his car, his wrists were zip-tied behind his back, and he was seated on the roadside ground for four hours."

"He was taken to a Navy base, where he was strip searched, then on to incarceration in Los Angeles, he says, handcuffs having replaced the zip ties," Will adds. "No charges had been made against him, but a mouth swab collected his DNA without his consent."

Will continues, "He says his requests for a lawyer, and for a shower to ease the discomforts of tear gas and pepper spray residues, were ignored. After three days, during which he missed his daughter's third birthday, an agent told him the charges against him had been dropped. 'What charges?' he recalls asking. Silence…. When, two months later, Retes published a newspaper op-ed about his experience, ICE suddenly claimed Retes had been resisting its agents. Video from a Los Angeles television station's helicopter monitoring ICE's operation seems to refute the agency's fabrication."

Three months after being detained, Will notes, Retes is still speaking out about his experience and is working with an Institute for Justice attorney.

"A 1971 Supreme Court ruling opened the door for holding abusive federal agents accountable for constitutional violations," Will observes. "Subsequent cases, however, have almost closed the door. This might explain ICE agents' aura of impunity when abusing Retes for days. How many appalling incidents are occurring during today's tsunami of sometimes-lawless 'law enforcement?' ICE might not know and, if it does, might not speak truthfully."

George Will's full Washington Post article is available at this link (subscription required).