USA Today columnist Rex Huppke took on what he called Donald Trump's "lies" that the Los Angeles protests over ICE raids constituted an "insurrection" that needed to be put down by the federalized National Guard.
"Donald Trump, the president who glibly pardoned the men and women convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, wants you to believe the second-largest city in America is in ruins, destroyed by 'insurrectionist mobs,'” Huppke wrote, adding, "That’s nonsense. Trump inhabits an imaginary, dystopian America spun from his opportunistic lies."
Huppke argued that Trump wants his base to believe that "predominantly peaceful protests" over ICE raids on tax-paying immigrants just going to work were "vast and violent."
"After promising to target 'criminals,' Trump’s administration, to make up for the paltry number of actual criminals ICE agents have been able to find and deport, has resorted to going after immigrants waiting for work in Home Depot parking lots," Huppke wrote. "It’s targeting immigrants properly, following the immigration process, posting ICE agents outside courthouses to snatch non-criminals who are seeking a better life."
Last week, Trump aide Stephen Miller reportedly berated ICE officials for not arresting more migrants, and urged them to target Home Depots and 7-Eleven convenience stores.
Miller told Fox News's Sean Hannity that the goal was to arrest 3,000 migrants each day -- up from about 1,000. This raised quota is what's pushing ICE agents to harass hard-working migrants, Huppke argued.
He wrote that the Trump administration's policy is "making a point of hitting a liberal city with a large immigrant population for one reason and one reason alone: Trump wants violence. He wants you to believe there are hordes of murderous immigrants making America dangerous and unlivable."