The death of a second US citizen at the hands of federal agents is pushing the United States towards a breaking point, according to experts interviewed by The Press. The Trump administration could retreat… just as it could increase its violence.
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What does public opinion say about the Trump administration?
The Trump administration is increasingly unpopular with Americans, and even more so since the death of Renée Nicole Good, a mother from Minneapolis, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent’s bullets in early January.
The tragedy has caused public support for the White House’s immigration policies to plummet to the point where more than half of Americans now oppose them, according to Ernesto Castañeda, director of the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the Immigration Lab at American University in Washington.
And the discontent is clearly observed in the demonstrations which followed the deaths of Renée Nicole Good and that of Alex Pretti. “Despite the very cold temperatures, people still decide to go out into the streets,” underlines the researcher.
Even the moderate Republican electorate is starting to question its support for Trump, underlines Julien Tourreille, researcher in residence at the Observatory on the United States of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair.
The unpopularity of the Trump administration undoubtedly pushes it to deny any error on the part of federal agents, according to the researcher. “We are a few months away from mid-term elections which promise to be difficult. So, their primary desire is to win the battle of the story,” explains the researcher.
Is Trump seeking to exacerbate tensions?
After the death of Renée Nicole Good, local authorities in Minnesota called on the federal government to suspend its immigration operations in Minneapolis. “But rather than attempting de-escalation by withdrawing the immigration police, Trump sent even more agents, with even more weapons,” observes Ernesto Castañeda.
And the Trump administration’s reaction to Alex Pretti’s death does not suggest that this time it will try to ease tensions, according to the expert.
By stoking the rage of Minneapolis residents, the administration could attempt to provoke excesses that would justify invoking the Insurrection Actaccording to David Grondin, professor of political communication and member of the Center for International Studies and Research at the University of Montreal (Cérium).
The law would authorize the president to deploy the military to crush those he considers his enemies. “But that’s taking it for granted that the president has a strategy behind all this,” he adds.
Is it still possible to calm things down?
Yes. On the legislative side, Democrats are threatening to block a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security that the Senate must vote on next week. “It could impose limitations on the financing of the ICE,” explains Ernesto Castañeda.
Stronger popular pressure could shake an American government already disowned by public opinion. David Grondin gives the example of the tens of thousands of people who went on strike to demonstrate last Friday in Minneapolis.
“This movement must reverberate elsewhere, and anti-ICE discontent must spread even further in the rest of the country,” he adds.
But nothing yet indicates that the administration will change course, underlines Ernesto Castañeda. “Trump is not the type to change tactics easily,” he adds.
