A beat cop's musings on policing in America
This continues a series of articles looking at different ways Trump’s election might have an impact on law enforcement.
As I noted in my last post, the transfer of military equipment to local police departments has been a subject of scrutiny and controversy in recent years, and the Trump presidency looks to be conducive to that transfer.
A common criticism you hear coming from progressive circles these days is against the “militarization” of police. This criticism goes deeper than just equipment, and deserves (and will ultimately get) more treatment than what I’ll say in just this article. But the face of the argument is in police equipment: most visibly, rifles, armored vehicles, and more BDU-like uniforms.
Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president by railing against the criminals coming in from Mexico, promised to build $14+ billion wall on the southern border, proposed banning immigration from Muslim countries, and has signed two executive orders (both of which have been stalled by the courts) to halt immigration from several Muslim majority countries. I will skate past all the political arguments and make the hopefully uncontroversial claim that he is not for open borders.
Since the election, there have been a slew of news stories about immigration raids and stories about a general climate of fear in immigrant communities. I remain a little skeptical of there being a trend. The stories so far are isolated and/or anecdotal; I’ve yet to see a (reputable) news source with a headline proclaiming that immigration raids are skyrocketing. Plus, we have yet to see our country run on a Trump administration budget–I am unaware of any sudden windfall of funding for ICE to pay overtime for increased work loads.* Here are some ways immigration enforcement, and our perception of it, may change under President Trump (and may already be changing): Continue reading “Trump’s Presidency: What’s coming in immigration enforcement”