A former chief of workers of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ripped President Donald Trump’s administration for taking the “unprecedented” motion of deploying Marines and National Guard troops to protests in Los Angeles.
Jason Houser, who served beneath former President Joe Biden and as soon as was a prime official within the Department of Homeland Security, advised MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera that troops from these forces have by no means accompanied his previous company on operations.
“The Nationwide Guard has been centered on the rioters and protesters however after they lastly leap that line and you start to see Nationwide Guard, Marines finishing up home immigration enforcement, that’s a really scary line,” he mentioned, “each for legislation enforcement and likewise these migrants that had been right here legally, who had standing and are actually being focused for arrest.”
Houser emphasised that the Marines’ coaching displays a “deadly software” and, when it comes to nationwide safety, the U.S. wants them to maintain People protected from “international threats.”
“However to have Marines and Nationwide Guard to start doing knocks and bangs on doorways, going to get households, kids, susceptible populations — it’s not inside their mission set or their coaching,” Houser mentioned.
As demonstrations proceed in opposition to the president’s aggressive immigration insurance policies, images shared by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week confirmed Nationwide Guard troops protecting federal immigration agents as they made arrests in Los Angeles.
The president instructed utilizing the Nationwide Guard to hold out his mass deportation marketing campaign final yr. Officers advised the Related Press that the troops weren’t collaborating in enforcement actions however had been offering safety for brokers within the L.A. space as an alternative.
Houser harassed that because the administration seeks to satisfy arrest quotas of non-criminal “vetted and screened” migrants, it’s “turning our nationwide safety equipment away” to implement home immigration issues as an alternative.
In April, Houser struck an analogous tone in a New York Times op-ed and later knocked the administration on MSNBC for partaking in “harmful political theater” via the misuse of federal legislation enforcement to “drive a story” that migrants looking for safety beneath the legislation are right here to hurt People.
“It’s dangerous, it’s dangerous for our Structure, it’s inhumane, it’s in opposition to our American values and, fairly frankly, it’s getting in the best way of federal legislation enforcement finishing up the general public security protections that we want,” he told MSNBC on the time.
