I flew out of LGA this morning, and there were ICE agents at the checkpoints. I was skeptical, and it was certainly alarming to see agents in tactical gear. However, they went out of their way to be friendly, make jokes, engage the people in line, etc. That doesn’t take away from many of your points, but I was pleasantly surprised and it was a good reminder that, for the most part, the agents are just people trying to do their jobs like the rest of us.
It's my impression that putting ICE on airport duty has changed the narrative about ICE and made them seem like pretty ordinary law enforcement officers. I agree that I'd prefer a compromise be reached and TSA to be paid in normal fashion, but this seems to have changed ICE's public image to some extent.
While I agree with your premise, argument and conclusions, I feel that the opportunity for genteel discussion has long passed. Trump operates as an Afghan War Lord. He demands tribute for crossing his territory and all territory is his. His thugs, or muscle, or ICE agents, whatever you want to call them, do not operate under the same norms of behavior as do persons of discernment. Airports, city streets as in Minneapolis, or polling stations in November, will all be attended by armed, masked, camo-clad thugs and that will be the new norm. We'll get used to it.
I may not like him, but there's a pretty looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way between Trump, US President, and an Afghan War Lord, and we'd do well to have measured conversations (focused on the piece, perhaps!) instead of trying to paint the people we dislike in bad color.
I flew out of LGA this morning, and there were ICE agents at the checkpoints. I was skeptical, and it was certainly alarming to see agents in tactical gear. However, they went out of their way to be friendly, make jokes, engage the people in line, etc. That doesn’t take away from many of your points, but I was pleasantly surprised and it was a good reminder that, for the most part, the agents are just people trying to do their jobs like the rest of us.
It's my impression that putting ICE on airport duty has changed the narrative about ICE and made them seem like pretty ordinary law enforcement officers. I agree that I'd prefer a compromise be reached and TSA to be paid in normal fashion, but this seems to have changed ICE's public image to some extent.
While I agree with your premise, argument and conclusions, I feel that the opportunity for genteel discussion has long passed. Trump operates as an Afghan War Lord. He demands tribute for crossing his territory and all territory is his. His thugs, or muscle, or ICE agents, whatever you want to call them, do not operate under the same norms of behavior as do persons of discernment. Airports, city streets as in Minneapolis, or polling stations in November, will all be attended by armed, masked, camo-clad thugs and that will be the new norm. We'll get used to it.
I may not like him, but there's a pretty looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way between Trump, US President, and an Afghan War Lord, and we'd do well to have measured conversations (focused on the piece, perhaps!) instead of trying to paint the people we dislike in bad color.