We watched America's incumbent government use ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) to deport people, see it being enforced on tourists, a total travel ban for people from 12 countries, and now to kick out the universities' foreign students, especially Chinese students. It's utterly insular and ridiculous, yet, it's being done.
One could say that deporting illegal immigrants is to be expected. But when they started deporting people who had staying rights and all, and then expanded to tourists and foreign students and workers on a legitimate work visa, it all becomes a fiasco.
The Los Angeles protests were both a surprise and not. The protests against immigration raids are to be expected. The sending in of 2000 National Guards and 700 Marines by the President to California to help with federal response and ICE officers is unprecedented, although it's completely expected of what a madman in power would do. Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act.
California has sued the Trump administration over the deployment of the National Guard, and now the Marines. This is against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom. He was called inept (by the Trump administration) and threatened with arrest if he obstructs the immigration enforcement effort. Mayor Karen Bass was threatened too. They remain unfazed and vows to fight against the deployment.
The Guard operates similarly to the Army’s reserve force. Most of its members do not serve full time. They generally hold civilian jobs and attend regular training sessions, and are called into active service only when needed. The Guard is most often called upon during extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods and wildfires.
Before Mr. Trump’s move, the last time a president activated a state’s National Guard troops for such a purpose without being asked to do so by the state’s governor was in 1965, according to Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent law and policy organization.
On that occasion, she said, President Lyndon B. Johnson used troops to protect civil rights demonstrators in Alabama.
This is Day 4 of the protests. I have no idea how determined the protestors are, and how sustained the violence would be. I don't know if it would go beyond setting cars on fire and trying to break windows of federal buildings. I do know that it's hard to go up against military might. How do I support violence that the protestors are choosing? I don't. I don't know their personal struggles, I don't know how it feels to be pushed into a corner if a country doesn't accept them via all legal means exhausted, but no country would permit unauthorized immigrants without action.
Is this a 'big country' problem? Singapore doesn't have the same issue with immigrants the way America and Europe do. We don't even accept refugees. We're so small that it's not difficult to round up overstayers and turn away immigration and security risks. I'm obviously generalizing, but it's the worries about inflation and livelihood in Singapore. Societal tension seems to be largely against immigrants when it's perceived that our jobs are being taken away by these expatriates and new citizens. It's still more of a have/have-not divide rather than immigration rights.
'Civil War' (2024) overtones, anyone? Director of 'Civil War' Alex Garland had said that he wasn't referring to Trump or anyone. Of course he had to say that. The film looks at the broader themes of political division, the erosion of democracy, and the dangers of unchecked power. Familiar huh? I don't think the LA protests are anywhere near that major yet, but it marks a beginning. If Trump clamps down even more, is this going to be Tiananmen 1989 all over again?
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