Don Moynihan writes:

As Trump deploys a combination of ICE, National Guard troops and other paramilitary forces to multiple American cities, he is implementing a three-step plan. The plan involves different parts of the national security state, immigration enforcement, and the military:

• Purge – eliminating those deemed not to be aligned with Trump.
• Merge – combine different components into a single omniforce.
• Surge – impose Trump’s control over Democratic cities; instigate enough unrest to justify escalation; find examples to brutalize and tamp down any dissent.

Radley Balko describes as this new entity as:

an amalgamation of border cops, ICE agents, Homeland Security, sheriff’s deputies, Guardsmen, and military (and probably soon, militia and extremist groups). This force is fiercely loyal to Trump, they operate in masks and unmarked vehicles, and they’re wholly unaccountable.

Military or paramilitary forces have some common qualities. Most obviously, they depend on hierarchy. In other respects, they vary. America’s military has historically been marked by a commitment to constitutional values, conditioned on a separation of civilian-military sphere of responsibilities. Other units, such as ICE or CBP, are distinctly less professional, disciplined, and more willing to explicitly align themselves with a political candidate, specifically with Trump.

Trump’s goal is to make ICE the model and heartbeat of the omniforce, which requires realigning other units to ICE’s values. For units marked by professionalism and dedication to constitutional values, e.g. the Department of Defense and the FBI, this means purging leaders. [Continue reading…]