WASHINGTON: Former US President Barack Obama on Saturday (Feb 14) condemned the operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minnesota, comparing their behaviour to conduct seen “in dictatorships”.
Thousands of federal agents including ICE agents carried out weeks of sweeping raids and arrests in what the Trump administration claims were targeted missions against criminals, until the operation was ended this week.
Obama had criticised the actions of ICE agents as unlawful last month, but went further in an interview with left-wing political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen released Saturday.
“The rogue behaviour of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous,” he said.
He called the behaviour of federal officers, which included two fatal shootings that sparked mounting pressure on President Donald Trump’s mass crackdown, as the sort that “in the past we’ve seen in authoritarian countries and we’ve seen in dictatorships”.
But Obama, the only Black president in American history, said he had found hope in communities pushing back against the operations.
“Not just randomly, but in a systematic, organised way, citizens saying, ‘this is not the America we believe in’, and we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests,” he said.
“That kind of heroic, sustained behaviour in subzero weather by ordinary people is what should give us hope.
“As long as we have folks doing that, I feel like we’re going to get through this.”
Trump’s pointman Tom Homan on Thursday announced the end of the aggressive immigration operation in Minnesota that triggered large protests and nationwide outrage.
In the wide-ranging podcast interview, Obama also criticised a lack of shame and decorum in the country’s political discourse, responding for the first time to a post on President Donald Trump’s social media that depicted him and first lady Michelle as monkeys.