Trump And Homan Make Adjustments

On Patrol: Live with its earlier incarnation, Live PD, has been a major indicator of which way the political winds are blowing for law enforcement, especially since the show was off the air for more than two years following the George Floyd riots, despite the fact that it's reliably been a top show in its time slot. Its host, Dan Abrams, is a solid legacy media figure who was able to engineer the show's return, but it should never be forgotten he's legacy media through and through.

It's genesrally recognized, though seldom explicitly stated, that as the show switches among ride-along vignettes from nine or ten departments each week, the producers generally do not feature scenes involving dead bodies, excesssive blood, nudity, or other situations that could be particularly disturbing. I've also noticed, though Abrams has never said explicitly, that the producers have seemed to avoid scenes involving illegal migrants identified as such, or inded any mention of the subject.

There were clearly situations in which police pulled over cars where nobody had ID and nobody spoke any English, but the police just pressed on with translator apps on their phones, and they generally didn't concern themselves, at least in front of the cameras, with the immigration status of the subjects. Often the cameras would just pull away without showing the outcome of the encounters. Clearly Dan Abrams, the other producers, and some of the police departments didn't want to court potential controversy. The show was canceled after the George Floyd riots, and it could happen again.

That seems to have changed in the past two weeks. Hazen, AR Police Chief Bradley Taylor, one of the best-loved regulars on the show, was doing a regular Bradley Taylor thing, good-naturedly helping push a driver stuck in the snow, when at some point he discovered the driver was an illegal already twice deported, and the mission changed from freeing the car to cuffing the guy and taking him to jail to wait for ICE to pick him up. As a regular viewer, I think this may be the first time any such situation was clearly identified as such, possibly because the popular Chief Taylor was involved.

Then Friday, Christian County, MO deputies pulled over a van loaded with eight or nine people, none of whom spoke English, and all of whom had IDs from Central and South America. In a procedure never previously depicted on the show, they unloaded them one by one to be interviewed by ICE over the phone, and at the designation of the ICE rep, they cuffed each one and took him to jail to be picked up by ICE. This is the fourth season of the show's reincarnation, and these are the first times illegal migration has even been mentioned on the show, much less arrests for immigration violations.

This strikes me as a major change in policy, especially considering how sensitive the producers must be to changes in public sentiment that got them canceled in 2020. I think this needs to be considred in the context of the Renee Good and Alex Pretti shootings in Minneapolis -- neither is turning out to be George Floyd redux, and Dan Abrams, legacy media through and through, must have figured this out. Nobody's going to cancel OP Live over arresting illegals.

I think we need to put the change in federal policy over sanctuary-city riots announced by Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, over the past few days in this context. Sundance at Conservative Treehouse is worried:

President Trump appears to be initiating a strategic retreat from sanctuary states and sanctuary cities. Via a message on Truth Social President Trump says he has instructed DHS Secretary Noem not to participate in “poorly run Democrat cities”:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP – “I have instructed Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, that under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help. We will, however, guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists.

. . . I would not be surprised to see both Kristi Noem and Tulsi Gabbard pressured to resign by the White House inner circle.

It's worth pointing out that Kristi Noem doesn't make border policy, Trump does, and Trump makes it in consultation with border czar Homan. He sent Homan to Minnesota last week following the Alex Pretti shooting, and it appears that Homan wa able to extract concessions from Walz, Frey, and Ellison. It's worth pointing out that Homan had a 30-year career as an ICE agent and was appointed ICE executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations by Barack Obama in 2013. Trump appointed him acting ICE director in 2017; he retired in 2018.

As a career law enforcement officer, one of his main concerns is that officers go home safe at the end of the day, and the same applies to protesters, even violent ones. A point he stressed in his Friday press conference was that the Minneapolis protests aren't safe, not for officers, and not for protesters. Two protesters got themselves shot for reckless behavior. That wasn't helping either side, but it's worth noting that neither of the dead protesters turned into a George Floyd, and a sign of that was that OP Live decided it could cover arrests of illegals in the wake of those shootings.

Homan's Friday remarks dwelt extensively on the need for cooperation from state and local law enforcement. If the local jails release illegals into the community, CBP and ICE need to send one team to take each one off the streets and another team to protect that team from protesters. This is inefficient, expensive, and unsafe. I think this advice had to be behind Trump's announcement yesterday:

In the meantime, by copy of this Statement, I am informing Local Governments, as I did in Los Angeles when they were rioting at the end of the Biden Term, that you must protect your own State and Local Property. In addition, it is your obligation to also protect our Federal Property, Buildings, Parks, and everything else. We are there to protect Federal Property, only as a back up, in that it is Local and State Responsibility to do so.

Last night in Eugene, Oregon, these criminals broke into a Federal Building, and did great damage, also scaring and harassing the hardworking employees. Local Police did nothing in order to stop it. We will not let that happen anymore!

The policy now appears to be that DHS agents simply will not engage with rioters; riot control is the responsibility of local law enforcement. As of last week,

Thursday morning, Border Czar Tom Homan discussed the ongoing crisis between ICE and protesters, saying the agency is working to alter how it operates.

"I do not want to hear that everything's been done here has been perfect. Nothing's ever perfect. Anything can be improved on. And what we've been working on is making this operation safer, more efficient by the book," Homan said.

Reuters reports one of those changes is a memo headlined "DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS."

"It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands," the memo reportedly reads.

Homan also said on Friday,

“The President wants to de-escalate the situation and to set the record straight — because my staff said they’ve seen a lot of people saying President Trump’s backing off on his promise of mass deportation,” Homan said. “That’s just untrue."

The paradigmatic response to these policy adjustments seems to have taken place in suburban Maple Grove, MN on January 26:

A protest outside a Maple Grove hotel where federal immigration enforcement agents were believed to have been residing as part of Operation Metro Surge has led to 26 people being arrested and charged.

. . . The Maple Grove Police Department says that on the night of Jan. 26, a protest outside the SpringHill Suites led to the arrest of 26 people who were allegedly taking part in "unlawful assembly and riotous conduct."

Police say the protest was only declared unlawful after property damage and "violence" began occurring, which was no longer protected under the First Amendment.

.. . The department says it’s aware of current protests outside of hotels of federal immigration agents, while saying in a statement: "While we respect First Amendment rights, we will not tolerate property damage or violence in our community."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) addressed the arrests on X, stating, "Glad to see some state and local government cooperation. It’s a start!"

It seems to me that the administration is going to keep pushing sanctuary jurisdictions to cooperate or face invocation of the Insurrection Act, and I suspect that the public mood generally will support this. This seems to be Dan Abrams's instinctive sense as a legacy media figure whose career depends on his good judgment.