President Trump, CBP Commander Bovino and Sec. Noem: More Violence, More Chaos, and More Lies

Access online version of this press release HERE

Washington, DC – The cruelty, chaos, and violence inherent to this administration’s mass deportation agenda is operating with little oversight or accountability and relying on outright lies – and threatens to get worse, as new interviews make clear.

• President Trump: immigration enforcement raids “haven’t gone far enough.” In an interview with CBS News, Norah O’Donnell asked President Trump if his immigration enforcement raids have “gone too far.” Trump responded, “no, I think they haven’t gone far enough,” noting his mass deportation effort has been “held back” by judges. When asked a follow-up question about his comfort with the tactics being used by immigration agents, Trump said, “yeah, because you have to get the people out.”

• CBP Commander Gregory Bovino: deployment of tear gas in Chicago used “to create peace and to save lives.” Bovino, the Border Patrol leader in charge of the “Operation Midway Blitz” operation, said during an interview with the Washington Post that the aggressive use of tear gas against city residents (including faith leaders) is being used to “’create peace and to save lives.” Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune reflected on the past month of CBP tactics, noting, “unlike ICE’s once-targeted operations, Border Patrol’s arrests now appear arbitrary. Agents drive up and down residential streets and stop mostly brown people seemingly at random — landscapers, pedestrians, construction workers — demanding to know, ‘Where were you born?’ or ‘Are you a U.S. citizen?’”

• DHS Secretary Kristi Noem: “no American citizens have been arrested or detained.” During a press conference late last week, Secretary Noem made the above false assertion and also stated, “We focus on those that are here illegally … anything that you would hear or report that would be different than that is simply not true and false reporting.”

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“This administration is trying to justify the unjustifiable and is calling for more violence, more chaos and more lies. Their definition of peace and order includes tossing tear gas into a Halloween parade and shooting faith leaders with pepper balls. But as President Trump is calling for and CBP Commander Bovino makes crystal clear, the administration’s attitude is, you ain’t seen nothing yet. They’re promising to bring more of the cruelty and chaos that Chicagoans are recoiling from to other cities with their unprecedented billions in new immigration enforcement funding, without oversight or accountability.

Meanwhile, Secretary Noem is telling us ‘don’t believe your lying eyes.’ Her claim that no U.S. citizens are being ensnared would be news to the more than 170 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents and the countless other Latinos being targeted by how they look or speak. What we’re seeing from Operation Midway Blitz is a dangerous preview of the broader mass deportation crusade. It terrorizes Americans and makes us all poorer, weaker, and less safe. We must stand up, push back, demand accountability and fight for a better and safer way.”

Additional Resources

• Watch a recording of last week’s virtual event convened by America’s Voice, featuring Illinois State Rep. Hoan Huynh who recently had federal agents surround his car at gunpoint while monitoring the site of a potential immigration raid; Matt Martin, a Chicago Alderman whose district includes Ruben Torres Maldonado, the Illinois dad who was detained shortly after his 16-year-old daughter’s chemotherapy; and Jenni Rivera from North Carolina, whose husband chose to self-exile after 30 years in the country rather than risk detention. Read the post event release here

• AV Press Release: “Mass Deportation: Violence and Abuse of Power are Becoming Routine. 4 Examples From This Week”