Discontent with ICE in cities across America is reaching a boiling point after the shooting of an American woman by an officer in Minneapolis.
Donald Trump’s administration has been funnelling millions into recruitment efforts for the immigration authority, with plans to spend $100,000,000 in the coming year to recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts as new agents.
A shooting yesterday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, of an unarmed Rene Good has exposed the danger of the expansion of ICE and the Trump administration’s drive towards immigration enforcement, an expert has warned.
Professor Clifford Stott MBEteaches Social Psychology at Keele University and has spent time in the US working on how to prevent social unrest.
He told Metro: ‘These kinds of incidents are now going to be increasingly more likely.
‘ICE is very likely to provoke widespread protest and create an ongoing challenge for American law enforcement in terms of how it manages those protests, especially as the federal administration and its policies are increasingly seen as illegitimate.’
He told Metro: ‘Everyone’s concerns are about the potential for this to precipitate into situations of civil disorder and civil unrest across the United States. Let’s be clear: 2020 shows that potentiality is always there.
‘The question here is about the complexity of the underlying issue and the fact that we are currently looking at a situation where the shooting involves a federal law enforcement agency. It didn’t involve the municipal police or municipal governance.’
Professor Stott pointed out that the local police department and city government have already raised issues with the shooting.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said: ‘In any professional law enforcement agency in the country… It’s obviously very concerning whenever there’s a shooting into a vehicle of someone who’s not armed.’
Mayor Jacob Frey said the federal government claiming ICE shot in self-defence was ‘bulls***’.
There are also serious questions about the skill sets and dispositions of ICE agents who are being deployed into cities across America, Professor Stott added.
And with a large recruitment drive planned this year, it’s becoming imperative that court decisions regarding the use of force by ICE are put in place as soon as possible, Professor Stott said.
‘We need a resolution where the separate arms of American governance begin to process this as quickly as possible. We need the courts to act quickly to bring definition to the legality of what happened in this circumstance.’
What’s done in the courts in the coming weeks regarding Renee Good’s shooting could set a precedent for future actions by ICE – something Professor Stott says needs to be done as ‘quickly as possible’.
ICE is continuing to recruit for new members, focusing on recruits who want to perform their ‘sacred duty’ by ‘protecting their homeland from foreign invaders’.
The head of ICE under Obama has already raised concerns about how dangerous a push for recruitment without background checks is.
Sarah Saldaña told the Washington Post the recruitment advertisements could raise the risk of attracting untrained Americans eager for ‘combat’.
Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson of the DHS, said ICE has received more than 200,000 new applicants and offered 18,00 new jobs. Some 85% of the new hires have experience in law enforcement.
But communities where ICE is being deployed are still worried – especially in Minneapolis, where neighbours witnessed local woman Renee Good die in front of them.
Those who witnessed the shooting have also said Ms Good was not trying to agitate the process, but drive away.
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