A national security correspondent questioned the presence of President Donald Trump's border chief on the front lines of a tense protest in Minneapolis.
Thousands gathered Thursday morning, less than a day after an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year American citizen Renee Good during a raid, and Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino smiled and laughed with federal agents as tensions flared outside a federal facility.
"What we're seeing here is certainly not accidental," said CNN's Josh Campbell, "because so much of this immigration enforcement effort that we've seen across the country has largely been about messaging, public messaging, getting imagery out there, and I have to say, I mean, you know, from the perspective of a law enforcement leader, it could be him wanting to come out there and try to, you know, buck up his own troops, which leaders often do to say, 'Look, I'm going to come out, you know, thank you for what you're doing.' So that's one aspect."
"But clearly there is a public messaging aspect because he's been there for so long, just kind of waiting around at times, looking back into the crowd, and, you know, one thing that we've noted throughout our coverage, especially when we've talked about excessive use of force incidents that were questionable, as you mentioned, there's always a big question about de-escalation," Campbell added. "Is this something that you want to try to, you know, bring down temperature, the temperature with the public, particularly in a volatile situation where you have someone who's been shot and killed by law enforcement. This is somewhat of the opposite."
Campbell also noted that President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, among other high-ranking officials, have clearly signaled to agents on the street that they would justify almost any use of force during immigration enforcement.
"Over the course of the last few months, we've seen the Department of Homeland Security leadership and the Department of Justice come out to quickly exonerate agents," Campbell said. "In the words of one law enforcement source that I talked to who works at a federal agency, they said this is essentially sending a signal to ICE and some of these other agents that they're essentially untouchable, because if your own leadership is coming out quickly and saying you did everything absolutely right, not waiting for a robust investigation, you have to wonder what that will do to the psyche of these agents as they're out there trying to decide, shoot or don't shoot. If you already know that, at least if past is prologue, there hasn't been a lot of accountability."
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