Posts Made By: James Lacey

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

How??? Because the fat bastard said so himself!


https://www.minnpost.com/glean/2026/01/trump-promises-day-of-reckoning-and-retribution-to-minnesota-democrats-ice-lawsuit-somali-tps/

Exactly!

The political retribution against Sen. Mark Kelly and other members of Congress who filmed their message reminding troops they must refuse illegal orders is equally transparent and disgusting. It just never ends with Trump; he thrives off of vengeance, retribution, and chaos.

Originally Posted by David Cotterell

James^2:   What part of 

""masked, racial profiling thugs, with no accountability or  training, who fly in the face of the 4th amendment with no warrants or probable cause."

is overly dramatic?

Dave

Thugs who fly in the face of the 4th Amendment with no warrants and no probable cause, is what I would say is a bit over dramatic. As Jim pointed out, the 4th Amendment applies to illegal immigrants in a limited way. Also,  ICE doesn't need warrants, and their threshold for probable cause is pretty low. I'm not saying I agree with these realities, only that they are realities. Like it or not, ICE probably is operating legally, even though we don't like or approve of its heavy-handed practices. It's typical of Trump and Stephen Miller, though, to push the envelope when it comes to the norms and expectations for our law enforcement. I suppose they are so keen to deport as many people as possible, before the midterms, that they don't care about optics anymore.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Here is a voice of reason; Alicia Nieves a young, liberal, front-line immigration attorney/activist, (not the journalist of the same name).  She makes a lot of really good and sane points, without defending ICE or Trump at all.  Most compelling perhaps, is the truth that Renee Goode and the other activists disrupting ICE in Minneapolis and elsewhere are not actually helping any immigrants.  Who are they helping?  Anti-Trump politicians and media I suppose.  Hardly worth jeopardizing your safety for, but hey, it provides anti-Trump bona-fides in certain social media circles.    

What do you all think of the Memphis model she describes toward of this longish but compelling article?  https://www.compactmag.com/article/how-pro-immigrant-activism-turned-dangerous/

I think the Memphis model is good, but the blame for all of the unrest in Minnesota doesn't lie with Democrats or the rapid response networks that are responding to ICE alone. Trump and Republicans have as much blame, given how they have gone after Minnesotans politically; citizens, immigrants, and political leaders. Also, do we even know whether ICE or any federal law enforcement agency tried to work with Minnesota's state and local law enforcement? Or did ICE and the federal government flood Minnesota with thousands of ICE and other federal agents with impunity? And if ICE had approached state and local law enforcement in Minnesota, met with some pushback on their tactics, and been asked to make compromises, would they have even entertained the idea? Or would ICE, Trump, and Stephen Miller simply pull their usual tough-guy act, double down, and do what they wanted to anyway via a monopoly of force and violence? Needless to say, it's a complicated situation, with lots of culture, history, and dynamics on both sides. Still, I think we have to blame Trump and his ridiculous bravado and take-no-prisoners style as much as anything.

Originally Posted by James Brown

I don't want to misread or minimize your point James, so please tell me if I am wrong concluding that your main point is that blame for the "unrest" in Minnesota lies predominately with Trump and his people?  I'm not sure the author of the article would disagree, but it is beside her point.

Even if we choose to apportion blame to Trump, that does not legitimize the actions of those who actively disrupt law enforcement.  Renee Goode did not need to die and she was the victim of a manslaughter or incredibly negligent police work at the very least.  That does not mean that she had any right to do what she did with her car, and she did not have any right to refuse to get out of her car.

Also, as we dig deeper into the blame game, the existence of Memphis (and other states or cities that have cooperated with the administration) suggests that there are better paths forward as Trump executes on his campaign promise to deport illegal aliens.  Pritzker, Walsh, Newsome and the like are as chock full of "ridiculous bravado and take-no-prisoners style" as Trump is.  They are motivating people like Renee Goode, but of course they are not the ones taking bullets.

I wouldn't say the blame lies primarily with Trump; there is plenty of blame to go around, which is closer to what I was saying. I certainly wasn't making excuses for anyone obstructing law enforcement. It's merely hard for me to take complaints about the rapid response networks in Minnesota seriously when there are plenty of examples of the heavy-handed and, in some cases, illegal actions of ICE and federal law enforcement in Minnesota.

In the case of Memphis, though, it may be a Democratic stronghold, but it exists in a sea of Republicanism around it, not much unlike my hometown of Austin, Texas. And their cooperation with ICE was seen mainly as a strategic effort to use federal resources to reduce local crime. Didn't they have some federal funding for local law enforcement that pivoted on their cooperation? In any case, Memphis's politics are entirely different from Minnesota's, so it's no surprise they had a different outcome. If I recall correctly, Austin police are also cooperating with ICE, even though Austin is a liberal enclave deep in the heart of Texas (as they say).

Originally Posted by James Brown

Smart move.   According to the article (and I find her quite persuasive) it is working.

I'm sure it didn't hurt because Memphis has had a high violent crime rate for a long time. Probably another reason they were eager for the help.

I guess by now most of us have seen that another person was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. Let the blame game and the spin begin!

Originally Posted by James Brown

Also, the Pritzker, Walsh, Newsome crowd and the press that supports them are giving Trump political wins.  I cringe every time a lefty politician demands that we abolish ICE.  Maybe the lefty has a better plan for illegal immigration enforcement, but no alternative has been mentioned.  "Abolish ICE" is the exactly same as "All illegal immigrants are welcome here" in the mind of the average voter.  This is an issue Trump won on and his successors can win on.

The left does have an answer for illegal immigration.  What the left would prefer is pathways to legalization (think DACA recipients) that are fair and just, protections for workers who are here legally, alternatives to mass detention centers, and more effective treatment for the root causes of illegal immigration. Really, anything that is more tame and humane than mass deportations achieved by sending thousands of armed, and apparently poorly trained, federal agents into a community to carry out roving stops that amount to little more than racial profiling, now known affectionately as Kavanaugh stops, would be better. What ICE is doing in Minneapolis might be technically legal, but it's also proving pretty awful. For example, ICE agents have stopped enough off-duty Minneapolis police officers now, asking them to prove their citizenship, that Minneapolis police leaders have publicly complained about it.

Originally Posted by Rod Kaufman

Conversely, any meaningful immigration reform was constantly rebuffed by Republicans in congress, even to the point of later sinking Langsford's bipartisan bill on Trump's behest. 

That said, here's what turned out today in Minn in freezing temps, snow and ice with many shutting down their own businesses to do it:
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5686733/minnesotans-day-of-ice-protests

But, anyone who makes the news opposing the administration and ICE is immediately branded a "domestic terrorist" by the likes of Miller, Noem or Bondi...

CNN's Jake Tapper showed the one video of Alex Pretti getting shot and killed by ICE yesterday, which is the best one I've seen as far as giving a clear view of what happened, and juxtaposed it with what Kristi Noem said about the shooting. It's 100% clear that Noem is straight-up lying about what happened. There is no way to square Noem's description with what you can see for yourself in the video. Stephen Miller also posted on X in response to Amy Klobuchar saying ICE should leave Minnesota because of all the harm they are doing. He called Alex Pretti a domestic terrorist, said he tried to assassinate federal law enforcement, and claimed Klobuchar and the state of Minnesota's entire leadership was fanning the flames of insurrection.

Originally Posted by James Brown

Sounds good, but this is not how the Biden Harris administration approached illegal immigration for the first three years of their term.

Regardless of what Biden-Harris did or did not do, what Trump's administration is doing in Minnesota is pretty messed up. Imagine what we are seeing was happening in another country. Imagine their political leaders were talking like Trump, Miller, Noem, Homan, and others, and sending masked paramilitaries into the streets to go door-to-door looking for ethnic and racial minorities so they could arrest and deport them. What would we think of that country and its leaders? We'd think they were at least authoritarian nationalists who were carrying out ethnic cleansing in the name of law enforcement and security. I can't square what ICE is doing in Minnesota with American values. And if ICE is going to go into Philadelphia the same way, as has been rumored, it's really going to be a train wreck. Philadelphia is a majority-minority city with a highly diverse ethnic and racial makeup, and it will not look kindly on masked federal agents roaming its streets and kidnapping its friends, families, and neighbors. Not to mention Philadelphia's long history of major protests against federal actions and policies. It will be quite the show, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by James Brown

It is horrific.   My guess is that Trump orders a pull out in MN starting today.  The situation is far beyond too dangerous and in Trump’s sick narcissistic mind the “optics” are too bad for him.

Let's hope some common sense prevails and they get out of MN and rethink how they want to carry out enforcement going forward. I have my doubts, though, that their tough guy double-down culture will allow them to admit they made a mistake. I guess they will claim success, mission accomplished, and we are leaving because we're done, not because we have made a mockery of American values for the whole world to see.

Originally Posted by James Brown

I just posted that I think Trump will back down in MN. (P.S in response to the latest video) I hope I’m right.

Why does he TACO on tariffs?   Because he figures out after the markets tank that his strategy is making him look bad.   I pray that happens here, especially before escalation in PA.  

There are a million ethical and humanitarian reasons not to escalate in Philadelphia, but maybe the one that will resonate with Trump would be Vance saying, “Boss, we need PA in ‘28”.

Maybe the latest shooting is a turning point, and the Trump administration will realize they can't just send masked, armed, and poorly trained federal agents into a community with absolute impunity. ICE's actions in MN have turned into the proverbial hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck that Jake Tapper immortalized.