2026-01-30
7 分钟The ice test.
Is America's president building his own paramilitary militia?
America stared into the void this week but pulled back.
Federal action in the streets of Minneapolis goes well beyond immigration.
It is a test of the government's power to use violence against its own citizens,
a dividing line between liberty and tyranny, and it will not be the last.
After immigration agents killed Alex Pretty on January the 24th and the Trump administration slandered a good Samaritan as a would-be mass murderer,
America was spiraling towards civil unrest.
Happily, protesters showed restraint.
Public opinion has turned against ICE, the catch-all brand for America's deportation machine.
Even some conservatives have doubts.
And Donald Trump grasps that immigration, once one of his strongest issues, has become a liability.
On January 26, the president sought to ease tensions,
including by putting the operation in Minneapolis under new management.
And yet, the standoff between ICE and local people continues.
Mr.
Trump has not renounced his power to impose a paramilitary force on unwilling states.
Americans should be on their guard.
ICE has a reason to be in America's cities.
Mr.