(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump has touted the success of his deployment of the National Guard and other federal agents to crack down on immigration and crime, but residents in these cities say this presence has damaged their sense of safety.
Trump has sent national law enforcement to Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Portland, Memphis and Chicago.
Since the national deployments, five cities have become roiled in protests and violent clashes between residents and law enforcement over the federal presence, which includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement tasked with deportations and the National Guard.
“We’re going to save all of our cities, and we’re going to make them essentially crime free, like other countries have crime free,” Trump said during a news conference on crime Wednesday.
Trump has already alluded to San Francisco, Boston and New Orleans as next in line for federal intervention.
“This is an amazing thing, and we’re just at the start. We’re going to go into other cities that we’re not talking about purposely. We’re getting ready to go in,” Trump said.
Community organizers in these cities, particularly those who interact with those who are being targeted, have described immense fear and anxiety among residents.
ICE in Los Angeles triggers protests
Los Angeles was one of the first cities where Trump unleashed the National Guard, citing the need to protect deportation officers in June. This occurred without authorization from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who pushed back on the federal presence.
In June, multiple ICE raids in the city triggered protests and unrest, leading the president to call in hundreds of National Guard officers.
“Violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles,” a statement from the White House read.
Clashes between community members and federal law enforcement came to a head in June with hundreds of arrests, according to the Deportation Data Project at UC Berkeley Law.
Attention shifted to other cities in the months since, but communities in L.A. continue to be “terrified and terrorized,” Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona, a member of local community group Unión del Barrio, which supports immigrant rights, told NewsNation.
“There are still mass raids happening right now,” she said. “That’s what’s missing from the narrative is that this has been consistent. Although there’s massive efforts at this time in different places across the country, places like L.A. have not been left alone.”
Many people in the community are still afraid to go get groceries, go to school and they are still changing routes to work and the bus stop, she said.
“This is a whole trauma that’s been inflicted in our community and in many cases we have citizens who are afraid because they have the ‘look’ (of being undocumented),” she said.
The streets are not safer, she added. “What Trump has done is terrorized working people that feel incredibly unsafe thanks to the different unconstitutional policies that he has implemented.”
California sued the Trump administration, and a federal judge found that Trump’s use of the Guard in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits using military forces in domestic law enforcement.
National Guard welcomed in Memphis
In a departure from the other cities, Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Memphis last month was welcomed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
While the city’s Democratic mayor, Paul Young, did not request the deployment, he said he hopes the federal presence will target violent offenders rather than harass or intimidate residents.
Under “Operation Memphis Safe Task Force,” agents from the ICE, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies arrested “850 violent criminals and known gang members,” Lee said Tuesday.
Residents are “cautiously cooperating,” Eureka Pickett, executive director of the Stone Community Development Corporation, which acts as a neighborhood block, said.
“The mayor pretty much has his hands tied because the governor is Republican and whereas our city mayor is Democrat, so the city mayor feels there’s really not much that can be done as far as resistance,” she said. “So even the citizens of Memphis are pretty much standing in the same boat.”
She noted that if the presence becomes prolonged, she can see protests and frustrations beginning to boil over.
“We noticed that there has been some reduction in crime, but we are also noticing that a lot of those are nonviolent crimes,” she said. “Most of the concerns are that people are worried about getting locked up for something, as you know, minor is some expired ticket.”
Young said the recent infusion of federal officers will likely last the next 30 days, but the impact and partnerships will last much longer, reported NewsNation affiliate WREG.
“Memphis has the opportunity to come out of this with a narrative that is stronger,” he said.
‘All necessary troops’ ordered to Portland, Oregon
Trump had ordered “all necessary Troops” to protect ICE facilities, agents and federal buildings in late September amid largely peaceful protests against ICE’s presence in the city.
“Take a look at Portland sometime,” Trump said in September. “These are crazy people, and they’re trying to burn down buildings.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Portland’s mayor repeatedly told the president that the city is not in need of federal officers, and eventually sued, arguing the deployment was unlawful.
A district court judge temporarily blocked the Oregon National Guard and California Guard troops from entering the city.
Still, protests outside the ICE’s facility in Portland have left the community on high alert. ICE agents are still conducting raids in the city.
“There’s a lot of anxiety, to be very honest,” Pam Phan, executive director of Unite Oregon, an immigrant and refugee-focused community organization, told NewsNation.
“Our safety and security is at risk and our members are living it right now, that anxiety, that concern, and some have chosen not to go to work given that workplaces are being targeted,” Phan said.
The people of Portland do not feel safe, Phan added. “We’re asking all of our neighbors to be on the lookout, make sure that we can identify who these invaders are, and make sure that we stay safe.”
ICE’s presence leads to standoff between Trump and Chicago
Chicago is currently the epicenter of federal enforcement, with Trump sending in hundreds of ICE agents to arrest and detain immigrants under “Operation Midway Blitz.” Both undocumented and legal residents have been picked up in these raids.
Since their presence in September, ICE agents have engaged in altercations with protesters using tear gas and pepper bullets. Local police officers were gassed in at least two altercations as well.
Trump has called Chicago a “hellhole,” though police statistics show significant drops in most crimes, including homicides. For weeks, protesters have clashed with agents outside a detention center in the village of Broadview, outside Chicago.
The Trump administration had ordered about 500 National Guard troops to the Chicago area in order to guard federal property and officers, but that deployment has been put on hold due to court rulings.
Trump filed a petition to the Supreme Court on Friday to remove that hold and allow the National Guard deployment.
Community leaders and organizers say foot traffic at local restaurants, grocery stores and doctors’ offices in southwest-side neighborhoods, including Pilsen, Little Village and Brighton Park has dwindled amid concerns that ICE and other agencies may be present in those areas to detain people on lists of targeted immigrants.
To combat, community members have banded together on efforts to inform and warn residents of ICE presence using pamphlets, whistles and car horns.
“It is not a time to be afraid, it is not a time to show fear or be silent,” Chicago Alderperson Bryon Sigcho-Lopez told NewsNation. “We are being attacked, our families are being torn apart … So it’s not enough to throw our hands in the air and say we need to accept the new norms.”
Federal control of police in Washington D.C.
Trump signed an executive order in August declaring a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C. Under the directive, he placed the local police under federal control and activated thousands of National Guard troops.
“These are undeniable positive results that everyone can celebrate,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said about Trump’s move in the nation’s capital.
A lawsuit filed by D.C.’s attorney general is currently challenging the deployment.
“This is not normal,” Joseph Johnson, a local elected official who chairs a neighborhood advisory commission, told the Associated Press. “We know this should never have happened in the first place.”
But he’s welcomed the extra hands on initiatives like cleaning neighborhoods, graffiti removal and help with food banks.
“They have no guns. They have no rifles, and they are truly doing what we have asked them to do to come and be a part of our community clean up,” Johnson said.
Luigi Silva, a legal resident from Venezuela who is seeking asylum, told the Washington Post in August that more federal agents patrolling the streets leaves him uneasy.
“I think all immigrants have some fear,” Silva told the outlet. “If they decide you’re a criminal, they just take you. They send you to El Salvador or to that prison they built in Florida. So yes, it’s a little scary. Because, basically, we don’t have rights.”
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