by Serwan Zangana
As the protests are continuing in Minneapolis, Minnesota against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations of cracking down on undocumented immigrants, however, in return the Trump administration has not been working in a well strategic way to mitigate the unrest and chaos that the protesters are causing as a reaction to the ICE operations.
In fact, the rights of assembly and freedom of speech are part of the U.S Constitution, and every American is entitled to these rights, but violent protests are a wrong way to send messages, and perhaps cause more damages to the communities. Also, harsh messages and statements especially from the authorities and the elected officials definitely deepen the situation and increase the turmoil in the communities. Such messages and statements can be heard from both sides of the aisle.
While Trump’s generalization in attacking immigrants and using profanity against his opponents, Democrats on the other side are not attempting to extinguish the public fire and condemn the violent protesters as they are refusing to recognize the federal immigration law.
The elected officials from both political parties are taking a wrong trend in defining immigrants and the immigration law to the public, and generally, they are sending negative messages to the communities, which are impacting the public’s behavior. Politicians’ blind loyalties to the political parties can lead to tolerating and defending the wrong acts of either their political parties or colleagues.
Obviously, Trump deployed ICE to the States and the cities across the U.S in an uncivilized way, which completely changed the appearance of the democratic society of America to a brutal militarized system. Regardless of the intention of the operations that was to crack down on the undocumented immigrants, Trump fueled the communities and created chaos as well.
However, as the chaos across the nation is underway, the question is: Could Trump conduct the operations to crack down on the undocumented immigrants, and at the same time, prevent such chaos? In fact, yes he could. It is noteworthy that former President Barack Obama during his Presidency has addressed the problem of the undocumented immigrants and ordered the operations of deportations, that resulted in deporting 2.5 million people between 2009 and 2015, without causing unrest in the communities.
“…The Bush administration has done nothing to control the problem that we have, and we had 5 million undocumented workers come over the borders since George Bush took office. It has become an extraordinary problem…as President I will make sure that we finally have the kind of border security that we need.” Former President Obama stated.
Where is the common sense in today’s American politicians?
The officials in the opposed cities of the ICE operations did not play a positive role to mollify people’s anger but instead pushed the public further to resist by any means. Perhaps, cooperating and negotiating with Trump to prevent violence from both the protesters and the ICE agents could have a peaceful outcome. The officials’ defiance to the ICE has stirred up the situation and deepened the crisis, and hence, people’s lives were lost.
“To ICE, get the [vulgarity] out of Minneapolis,” Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Minneapolis said in response to the ICE operation and shooting the protesters. However, an independent committee without any political interference must investigate ICE shooting. But Mayor Frey in his vulgar language has aligned with Trump, as he is known for daily stream of invective. Apparently, with such a behavior, the hostility will not decrease and the public will continue to be on fire.
The political community is lacking decency and the politicians are often the main reasons in creating unrest and divisions among people. American society has become the battlefield of political conflicts. The unfair and personal attacks between the politicians have led to disregard for the same law they voted on. The entry of undocumented immigrants to the U.S as a problem is traced back decades, and every president addressed such a problem with proper action to control the border and crack down on undocumented individuals.
But the militarized actions by ICE agents in the communities to crack down on the undocumented immigrants cannot be digested by the Americans, and however, the violent protests to oppose ICE actions are not a civilized way as well. Obviously, American society is surrendered by the two major political parties, the Democratic and the Republican, and they are influencing the American people in many aspects. That means, the two parties can be blamed for most of the unrest in the communities.
However, vulgarity and offensive language of the politicians and the elected officials, including the President, as they are the leaders of the communities should not be tolerated. And after all, logic and decency of the elected officials can indeed be the keys for a peaceful community, which are unfortunately missing from most of today’s American politicians.
