THE ATLANTIC – Politics | Politics & Government

The state and local officials meeting with Tom Homan, who was put in charge of the federal immigration operation in Minnesota this week, have generally agreed that their encounters have been cordial and productive, a welcome change from the militaristic approach taken by his predecessor. Homan has also cast these discussions in a positive light, expressing optimism Thursday that “commonsense cooperation” on immigration enforcement in Minneapolis will allow him to draw down the thousands of agents that have flooded the city for the past two months.But beyond the pleasantries, Homan is finding little appetite in Minnesota for the kind of targeted, aggressive immigration enforcement he has long sought to enact in Democratic-run cities and states. After the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, there is even less trust among local leaders that the Trump administration can be a reliable partner.Although Homan has acknowledged that the… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

When a conspicuous presidential project goes awry—in this case, federal immigration agents killing two protesters in Minnesota—someone typically loses their job. And for much of this week, Kristi Noem’s deportation from the Trump administration seemed imminent.Public confidence in the president’s handling of immigration has been plummeting. And as the secretary of Homeland Security—and the ostentatious face of President Trump’s high-profile ICE and Customs and Border Protection dragnets—Noem has seemed the logical sacrifice. Washington loves a good Cabinet deathwatch, just as Trump loves a good public expulsion. Or at least he used to. By this point in his first term, his “You’re fired” bit had migrated seamlessly from TV to politics: His White House had already bled out a national security adviser (Michael Flynn), press secretary (Sean Spicer), chief of staff (Reince Priebus), chief strategist (Steve Bannon), and secretary of Health and Human Services (Tom Price).But in what can perhaps be… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

One year in, the Trump administration has amassed a startling record of hostility toward open public discourse—including barring journalists from the White House press pool, evicting any less-than-sycophantic reporters from the Pentagon, and, just this month, sending the FBI to search the home of a Washington Post reporter. Today, it crossed a new line. It arrested two journalists: Don Lemon, the former CNN news personality, and Georgia Fort, a freelance reporter based in Minnesota.Along with seven others, Lemon and Fort have been charged with conspiring to violate the civil rights of parishioners at a St. Paul church, along with violating a prohibition on blocking access to a house of worship. On the basis of the record available so far, the case against them appears factually weak, legally shoddy, and marred by a baffling series of procedural irregularities that raise serious questions about the Justice Department’s ability to win in court.… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

For years, they defended American elections from all threats, foreign and domestic. But this week, veterans of federal law enforcement were forced to look on as the U.S. electoral system came under assault from an unlikely source: the government they served.David Laufman once oversaw counterintelligence investigations for the Justice Department and held senior positions in the Bush, Obama, and first Trump administrations. On Wednesday, he watched images of FBI agents searching an election-office warehouse in Fulton County, Georgia, confiscating ballots and other materials in the latest escalation of Donald Trump’s five-year quest to prove, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. The episode felt particularly ominous to Laufman—a crossing of a sacred line, and an indication that the administration won’t stay within the guardrails that have kept American voting systems free of political interference.“There could be few more well-trod hallmarks of authoritarianism… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

The Minneapolis police cruiser was heading south toward sections of the city hit hardest by recent immigration raids. I was riding with the city’s police chief, Brian O’Hara. How candidly, I asked him, was he willing to discuss his views of President Trump? “I have my personal opinions,” O’Hara allowed warily. “I don’t think my personal opinions are relevant for my job.”We were approaching Karmel Mall, a hub of the Somali community in South Minneapolis. The shopping corridor had emptied out in recent weeks as armed federal agents in tactical gear swarmed the city. The sun was setting, and I saw a woman in a headscarf ushering a young boy along the sidewalk in front of her. “I guess,” I said to O’Hara, “I was thinking specifically of when he talks about Somali residents of Minnesota as garbage.”He threw up his hands. “It’s crazy,” he said. “It’s disgusting, and it’s… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.