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President Donald Trump openly ordered Democratic cities to be targeted with raids by immigration authorities the day after millions of people turned out for nationwide “No Kings” protests while his birthday military parade drew a comparatively puny crowd.
On Sunday, Trump said in a social media post that expansions of his deportation campaign in U.S. cities is key to his barbaric plan for the “single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.”
He singled out Los Angeles, where immigration agents have been met with fierce protests and opposition, as well as Chicago and New York for raids. These places, he said without evidence, are part of “the Democrat Power Center” where undocumented immigrants are part of Democrats’ mission to “expand their Voter Base.” There is no evidence of widespread voting fraud stemming from undocumented immigrants.
Trump also manages to shoehorn anti-trans statements in the post which is otherwise entirely about immigration.
The administration is indeed eyeing even more immigration crackdowns on top of the already horrific, extralegal raids of communities across the U.S. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who has crafted much of Trump’s immigration agenda, has said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are aiming for 3,000 arrests or more a day, up from the 650 a day on average since Trump’s second term began.
On top of being cruel, this plan appears to be logistically impossible with current staffing levels for federal agents, analyses have found.
Trump says that Democratic areas must be targeted because Democrats are trying to “destroy” American cities, turning them into “scenes of Third World Dystopia.” However, it is the immigration raids and anti-protest crackdowns unleashed by the Trump administration that are producing images of a fascist dystopia where residents seeking to voice their opinions are met with police violence.
Trump has already targeted Los Angeles with an enhanced military campaign, calling in thousands of National Guard members and Marines to accompany immigration agents and police to crush protests against the ICE raids.
California officials have warned Trump’s raids in LA could have an impact on the local economy, as the Trump administration has swept up numerous workers in hospitality, farming and meatpacking, threatening the industries — something he acknowledged in a bizarre, contradictory Truth Social post last week.
Trump’s order for expansion comes just after Americans in all 50 states protested against Trump’s immigration policies and overall authoritarian regime. According to the ACLU, which helped organize the protests, over 5 million people participated in the protests, which were held in over 2,000 places across the country.
Photos of large crowds at Saturday’s protests were sharply contrasted with pictures and videos of Trump’s military parade, where sparse crowds turned out to witness what reporters said was a low-energy parade where often, the only sound was the quiet squeaking of a tank’s wheels, trudging along at walking pace.
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