Trump’s new authoritarian tool is already at work ahead of the midterms

With fewer than 30 days before the midterm elections, MS NOW commentators Ali Velshi and Jimson Rodriguez argue that President Donald Trump is leaning on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to project power and possibly interfere with voting. They point to Trump's spending bill, which gave the agency $75 billion in new money, and to ICE officers who may mask themselves and work anonymously. Large operations have taken place in Democratic-led cities including Los Angeles and Chicago, and in Minneapolis federal immigration agents outnumbered local police.

Democracy Docket, drawing on documents it analyzed, found that ICE's Homeland Security Investigations arm looked into hundreds of nonprofits that help people register to vote, with dozens of groups in Ohio and Pennsylvania singled out. The Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations was among them. The Washington Post reported that hundreds of agents were reassigned to look for noncitizens on voter rolls, and an internal email indicates detainees have been asked since Oct. 1 whether they voted illegally.

ProPublica counted at least 506 American citizens, including at least 70 minors, caught up in enforcement. Brian Morales García was deported and only recently came back from Mexico.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →