President Donald Trump's administration deployed two highly secretive immigration forces to Minneapolis, according to a new report, and one expert argued that they are the "wrong tool for the job."
Wired reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration has deployed Immigration and Customs Enforcement's two Special Response Teams (SRT), the SRT from Customs and Border Patrol, and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) to Minneapolis as part of its Operation Metro Surge. The administration has also deployed these teams to Southern California and Illinois, where immigration forces have clashed with local protesters.
The forces are effectively special operations units within their respective agencies, which employ many military veterans and operate under a "wartime mindset," according to the report. Unlike police officers, SRT and BORTAC forces wear full riot gear, carry heavy-duty crowd control weapons, and are known to deploy chemical weapons without warning, the report added.
One expert who spoke with Wired said the forces are "absolutely the wrong tool for the job." The report also indicated that it may be difficult to hold these officers accountable for their actions, given that they are rarely named in court documents.
“These teams are our equivalent of special operations command," Gil Kerlikowske, a former CBP commissioner from 2014 through 2017, told Wired.
“BORTAC in particular is used to operating in the desert. They are not trained for urban policing,” Kerlikowske said. "They’re absolutely the wrong tool for the job. It’s like using a chainsaw to mow your lawn.”
Wired also reviewed more than 100 court cases involving the SRT and BORTAC teams and found that they are rarely named or identified in any way, even when accused of violating someone's civil rights.
The report also warned that the "brutal" tactics these teams use appear to have "spread into ICE and CBP as a whole."
