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Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Tucson, Arizona, are facing allegations of impersonating utility workers while attempting to locate and detain an undocumented immigrant. The incident reportedly took place in a south Tucson neighbourhood on Wednesday morning.According to local resident Christine Cariño, two individuals appeared wearing Tucson Electric Power (TEP)-style clothing and asked questions about a Honduran man who has lived in the area for more than a decade. Cariño told the New York Post that the men said they were responding to a request for a city service estimate.'He said, 'We're trying to find somebody that wanted a free estimate,'" Cariño said. She became suspicious when she noticed that the men's clothing did not match typical TEP uniforms. One wore a reflective shirt, while the other was in a plain black t-shirt. Cariño said she spotted a badge under one man's shirt and asked whether they were from the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ).The men were later allowed into the property's garden by the resident's stepson. Cariño, who witnessed the interaction, began warning others nearby: 'Don't open the door, they don't have a warrant!' she yelled, a moment captured in video obtained by local outlet KGUN 9. 'They're lying, they're not in a uniform!'(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)Under US law, immigration agents must have occupant consent or a signed warrant to enter a residence. Witnesses allege the individuals misrepresented themselves in order to gain entry.The immigration agents reportedly told the resident through the door that he had missed immigration court hearings. The man denied the claim and did not come outside.This tactic has drawn national scrutiny in the past. A 2020 complaint by the ACLU of California alleged that immigration enforcement officers have posed as delivery drivers or contractors to conduct arrests, calling the practice unconstitutional. That case remains unresolved.
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Hindustan Times
5 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Why Donald Trump is wrong to take over the DC police
AMERICA'S CAPITAL city was designed as a showcase for its democracy: sweeping boulevards, white-marble palaces of administration, monuments aplenty. This week, however, Washington, DC has become a manifestation of something less inspiring: the grandstanding instincts of the current president. This time, Donald Trump's preoccupation is violent crime. Mr Trump has been banging this drum for decades. 'Roving bands of wild criminals roam our neighbourhoods dispensing their own brand of twisted hatred,' warned Mr Trump nearly 40 years ago. The occasion then was the rape and assault of a white woman in New York's Central Park, for which five black and Hispanic men were later wrongfully convicted. On August 11th Mr Trump all but quoted himself: 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,' he said from the White House briefing room. Then he deployed the National Guard to Washington; took control of its police force; and promised to 'get rid of the slums' and clear out its homeless population. This is not the president's first use of the armed forces for civilian law enforcement in a city that reviles him and that he reviles right back. Earlier this summer Mr Trump sent National Guard troops to protect federal property during protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles. In 2020 he ordered them to disperse Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Washington. In neither instance did local Democratic leaders ask for his intervention. Now Mr Trump hints that the Washington deployment could be a blueprint for other troublesome (ie, Democratic-run) places. That will be easier said than done, however. The capital has an unusual legal status as a territory of the federal government granted qualified home rule. Elsewhere the president would face more legal impediments. The practical impact of the president's order may be modest. He has authorised the DC National Guard—which is tiny—to act as cops. About 200 troops will support law enforcement. By law his control of the city police can last for only 30 days; after that Congress would need to extend it. It is a far cry from a federal takeover of Washington. Seeking to justify his order, Mr Trump cited several awful attacks against government workers. In early August carjackers beat up and bloodied a former DOGE staffer. In June stray gunfire killed a congressional intern. Last year an official at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was shot to death in a carjacking. In 2023 a Senate aide was stabbed and a congressman was robbed at gunpoint. 'It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness,' said Mr Trump, likening the capital to Baghdad and Bogotá. The president is right that violent crime in Washington surged in 2023 and that it numbers among the most dangerous cities in America. He neglected to say that crime there has since tumbled. This year's murder rate is falling towards the pre-pandemic trend. The number of carjackings, which doubled between 2022 and 2023, is declining too, though they are still more frequent than they were before the pandemic. Overall the capital is considerably safer than it was in the 1990s, when it had the highest murder rate in the country, and it is a bit less dangerous than it was a decade ago. Mr Trump's action will irk the 700,000-odd citizens of Washington, whose elected government is being sidelined. And it is hypocritical. Mr Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress have been impeding the city government, preventing it from spending the taxes it has raised and forcing cuts to services like policing. Republicans have thus exacerbated Washington's crime problem. Mr Trump's focus on the city over more violent ones is not just because he can see it from his bedroom window. It is because the federal government retains more authority over the capital than over states or even other federal territories. The president commands the DC National Guard—in states, governors have that job—and he can take temporary control over the police department. Washington's unique status means these same tactics cannot easily be replicated outside the capital. To 'federalise' the National Guard for arrest purposes elsewhere—to empower troops to act as cops—Mr Trump would have to invoke the Insurrection Act. Only then can the armed forces legally be put to use to quell a domestic uprising. The act was last used in 1992. Invoking it again would be immensely controversial. Mr Trump's approach in Washington, then, is clever when viewed through a lawyer's lens. Which is not to say that his order is justified or good policy. Stay on top of American politics with The US in brief, our daily newsletter with fast analysis of the most important political news, and Checks and Balance, a weekly note from our Lexington columnist that examines the state of American democracy and the issues that matter to voters.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
How Trump Is Expanding the Role of the American Military on U.S. Soil
President Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., is his boldest move to date to expand the use of military power on U.S. soil. President Trump announced that he will deploy National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to combat crime rates. WSJ's Meridith McGraw explains the announcement and what it means for the city. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA Press/Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press The deployment of 800 National Guard troops to Washington, which the president alleges has been 'overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals,' amplifies the law-and-order themes that play well with his political base. He buttressed this announcement Monday by effectively federalizing the Washington police department, putting it under the control of the Trump administration. In making these moves, he alleged the actions were warranted for a number of reasons that ranged from crime to homelessness. The announcement was the latest in a series of moves by Trump to push the boundaries of how U.S. troops can be deployed in American territory, triggering a fierce legal debate over the U.S. military's expanding footprint at home. Trump is also using U.S. military bases for migrant detention centers and has deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles and on the Southern U.S. border. 'The most benign interpretation is that this is an attempt to gain a public-relations victory by claiming credit for the already historically low crime rates in D.C.,' said Carrie Lee, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a former professor at the U.S. Army War College. 'The worst-case interpretation is that it is a test run for more legally dubious uses of military forces in other American cities.' The same day as Trump's announcement about the National Guard in D.C., a federal trial began in San Francisco over California Gov. Gavin Newsom's challenge to Trump's move to federalize state National Guard units there two months ago. The case might be the opening salvo in a much broader battle over the use of military force in the nation's streets when the president's claims of emergency are widely disputed. Trump has long leaned on the threat of using U.S. military force to respond to domestic problems. In the first administration, chief of staff John Kelly told others that one of his biggest challenges was dissuading the president from using the military on U.S. soil. He said that Trump didn't understand that the military was only meant to be deployed domestically in rare circumstances, according to a person familiar with the exchanges. After returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump increasingly began to notice homeless encampments when his motorcade drove through the city to go to his golf course in Sterling or to the Kennedy Center, according to a senior administration official. 'He's staying in D.C. a lot more this term, and he pays attention to the news in D.C.,' the person said. Trump raised the issue of crime and graffiti with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser during the transition and closely followed a spate of crimes over the July 4 weekend, repeatedly raising the topic of crime with top aides, including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. For nearly 150 years, the Posse Comitatus Act has sharply limited the military's role in domestic law enforcement, barring it from policing civilians except in rare, legally defined cases. Since Trump returned to the White House in January, he has deployed the National Guard and U.S. military on domestic soil several times. In June, Trump deployed U.S. Marines and California National Guard troops to Los Angeles when demonstrators protested the role of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' arrests of suspected illegal immigrants, leading to confrontations with law enforcement. On the U.S.-Mexico border, where active-duty U.S. and National Guard soldiers have been deployed, troops have detained migrants inside a newly declared 'National Defense Area,' and U.S. Air Force planes have also been used to ferry detainees out of the country. A rally on Monday. protesting the Trump administration's federal takeover of the District of Columbia. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that military bases in New Jersey and Indiana would be used to house detainees suspected of being illegal immigrants who would be overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. That would enlarge the network of military facilities for detained migrants, which has included U.S. military bases at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Guantanamo, Cuba, which have already been used to hold detainees. While Trump activated all 800 members of the D.C. National Guard, only 100 to 200 soldiers will be supporting law enforcement at any given time, according to an Army statement. Army spokesman Dave Butler said they would not come in direct contact with civilians and only provide a presence to deter criminals, as well as administrative and logistical support to law enforcement. D.C. officials say violent crime last year was at a 30 year low. A tent in Washington, D.C., on Monday. President Trump has pointed to homelessness as a reason to deploy troops. While U.S. troops deployed to Los Angeles were only meant to protect federal buildings, their role was broadened to escorting ICE agents during their arrests of suspected illegal immigrants. It also turned out to be open-ended—while they were initially meant to stay in Los Angeles for 60 days, the Pentagon recently issued a new activation order to extend their deployment through early November. Only several hundred of the nearly 5,000 National Guard troops sent to the city remain, mostly limited to two locations with federal buildings in Los Angeles. It isn't clear how long the National Guard will be deployed to Washington. 'These missions are highly fraught for the military, and whether they turn out well or poorly depends on the implementation details that are still murky,' Peter Feaver, a professor of political science and public policy at Duke University, said of Trump's decision. 'The closer the implementation details come to traditional police work, the more problematic—both legally and operationally—it is for the military.' Previous presidents have deployed the National Guard to quell large-scale civil unrest, as was done in 1968 when riots erupted in Washington, D.C. following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, President Lyndon Johnson deployed 1,750 National Guardsmen and more than 11,000 active duty troops to support the beleaguered D.C. police forces. The laws pertaining to the District of Columbia grant Trump authority for using the National Guard that goes beyond what he enjoys in the rest of the country. The president has direct control over D.C. National Guard without taking steps to federalize the troops, as it required in U.S. states. 'D.C. has long been unique both politically and legally, even compared to other federal territories. The president has direct control of the D.C. National Guard in a way that he doesn't have other National Guards, including Guam's,' said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. 'The larger issue is the possibility that we become desensitized to the prospect of a U.S. president putting troops in D.C. for entirely invented reasons.' Write to Michael R. Gordon at Vera Bergengruen at and Lara Seligman at
NDTV
2 hours ago
- NDTV
Fact Check: President Trump Exaggerates, Misstates Facts On Washington Crime
Washington: President Donald Trump said Monday that his administration will take over policing the nation's capital city in what the Republican said is an effort to bring down rising crime rates in Washington, DC. But President Trump exaggerated or misstated many of the facts surrounding public safety in Washington, where the crime rate has fallen in recent years, while leaving out much of the context. Here's a closer look at the facts: PRESIDENT TRUMP: 'It's getting worse, not getting better. It's getting worse.' THE FACTS: Statistics published by Washington's Metropolitan Police contradict the president and show violent crime has dropped in Washington since a post-pandemic peak in 2023. According to the data, homicides, robberies, and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago. A recent Department of Justice report shows that violent crime is down 35% since 2023, returning to the previous trend of decreasing crime that puts the district's violent crime rate at its lowest in 30 years. That report shows that when compared to 2023 numbers, homicides are down 32%, armed carjackings are down 53% and assaults with a dangerous weapon are down 27%. The city's statistics have come into question, however, after authorities opened an investigation into allegations that officials altered some of the data to make it look better. But Mayor Muriel Bowser stands by the data and said Trump's portrait of lawlessness is inaccurate. 'We are not experiencing a spike in crime," Bowser said on MSNBC Sunday. "In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down.' PRESIDENT TRUMP: "Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate, probably ever. They say 25 years, but they don't know what that means because it just goes back 25 years." THE FACTS: In 2023, the District of Columbia recorded 274 murders in a city of about 700,000, its highest number in 20 years. But the city's own crime statistics from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, when the population was smaller, show much higher numbers of homicides. In 1990, for instance, the city reported 498 homicides. The next year saw 509, and 460 in 1992. Decades of statistics on crime in the city are available online. PRESIDENT TRUMP: 'The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City. Some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth, much higher. This is much higher." THE FACTS: It's true, but President Trump isn't telling the whole story. Washington does have a higher homicide rate than many other global cities, including some that have historically been considered unsafe by many Americans. But Trump is leaving out important context: the US in general sees higher violent crime rates than many other countries. While Washington is one of America's most dangerous big cities, others have higher crime rates. PRESIDENT TRUMP: "This dire public safety crisis stems from a public safety crisis that is directly from the abject failures of the city's local leadership. The radical left City Council adopted no cash bail. By the way, every place in the country where you have no cash bail is a disaster." THE FACTS: Data has not determined the impact of cashless bail on crime rates. Studies, many of which focus on recidivism of defendants rather than crime rates, have shown mixed results. A 2024 report published by the Brennan Center for Justice saw 'no statistically significant relationship' between bail reform and crime rates. The nonprofit looked at crime rate data from 2015 through 2021 for 33 cities across the US, 22 of which had instituted some type of bail reform. Researchers used a statistical method to determine if crime rates had diverged in those with reforms and those without. Mr Ames Grawert, the report's co-author and senior counsel in the Brennan Center's Justice Program, said this conclusion 'holds true for trends in crime overall or specifically violent crime.' Similarly, a 2023 paper published in the American Economic Journal found no evidence that cash bail helps ensure defendants will show up in court or prevents crime among those who are released while awaiting trial. 'I don't know of any valid studies corroborating the President's claim and would love to know what the Administration offers in support,' Mr Kellen Funk, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies pretrial procedure and bail bonding, told The Associated Press in a July 25 fact check. 'In my professional judgment, I'd call the claim demonstrably false and inflammatory.' The Trump administration has cited a 2022 report from the district attorney's office in Yolo County, California, that looked at how a temporary cashless bail system implemented across the state to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in courts and jails impacted recidivism. It found that out of 595 individuals released between April 2020 and May 2021 under this system, 70.6% were arrested again after they were released. Mr Funk, contacted on Monday, noted that Washington, DC, reformed its cash bail system in the 1990s. 'What the President is declaring to be an 'emergency' is a system that has functioned much better than cash-based bail systems for nearly thirty years now, including during the recent historic lows in reported crime in the District,' he said, adding that 'the DC bail system has served as a model for bipartisan bail reform efforts in New Jersey and New Mexico over the past decade.'
