Under the restored Trump administration, the rule of law is giving way to the law of the jungle. Fear, suspicion, bullying and “thuggery” are ascendent, and it won’t only be immigrants and refugees who will suffer as a result.
It is going to be up to all Americans, public officials and private citizens alike, to stand up to the administration’s lawlessness and to publicly call out abuses of power whenever and wherever they occur.
And they are occurring a lot more often.
Jeff Silvestrini, mayor of the Salt Lake City suburb of Millcreek, has set a courageous example by calling on leaders of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to investigate a recent incident in his city.
The mayor rightly, and forcefully, objected to an incident where, by all appearances, ICE agents went totally rogue, made unjustified threats of violence and arrest against a person who had committed no crime. The ICE agents took Millcreek and Murray police officers away from their real duties and then lied to the local officers about what had happened.
It was only because the Unified Police Department officers from the Millcreek division did the right thing that an innocent man didn’t get dragged away.
“Your officers’ conduct appears to reflect either poor training or the kind of unprofessionalism (dare I say thuggery) which gives all police officers a bad reputation,” Silvestrini wrote to ICE.
Local officials were also rightly troubled when ICE agents threw their dragnet over the Ogden Justice Court, arresting a man who had come to plead guilty to some misdemeanor charges arising from a recent fender-bender auto accident.
People who are genuinely responsible for keeping the peace in American cities small and large — as opposed to those who just pretend — have long warned that creating a climate of fear in immigrant communities can only make all of us less safe.
When immigrants and refugees, here legally or otherwise, have reason to worry that any contact with the criminal justice system will drag them into federal immigration actions, their willingness to cooperate with police and courts quickly evaporates.
Suspects won’t appear in court as ordered. Victims and witnesses won’t report crimes and won’t testify. The ability of local law enforcement to keep the peace will suffer greatly.
Local law enforcement agencies have their bad apples, too. But local cops and deputies are, at least in theory, answerable to their chiefs and sheriffs, who are in turn responsible to their mayors, councils and electorates.
Federal officers unleashed by an administration that has zero respect for law and order are not answerable to anyone. And, when that happens, none of us is safe.
The claim by Republicans to be the party of law and order is dissolving before our eyes.
This president pardoned more than 1,500 criminals duly convicted for taking part in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, including many who are on video attacking police officers. The recent run-in in Millcreek won’t be the only time ICE agents get crossways with local police.
Instead of Americans feeling called to snitch on their neighbors, reporting people they may believe to be immigrants here without authorization, we would be better served to report employees of ICE or other federal agencies overstepping their authority and spreading fear through our communities.
It might be risky to tell the truth. But it’s what must be expected of citizens of a free nation.
