"Nothing has changed on the ground or in policy

If this is a pullback as the right claims, then why are ICE and CBP agents acting just as brutally and lawlessly as before? Why are they still roving about and making open threats upon legal observers and peaceful activists?

The fact is, ICE is still out there rounding up immigrants, pepper spraying innocent protestors, and disobeying court orders over detainees.

A federal judge even had to threaten to haul acting ICE director Todd Lyons into court himself in order to force the Department to obey an order issued weeks ago to release a detainee illegally held by ICE.

Given this, Trump claims he is planning to de-escalate, but should we even believe him? Are we just falling for his distractions and lies once more?

Trump could simply claim he is making a change, only to continue keeping ICE in place in Minneapolis, just under a new leader. After all, Bovino’s replacement, Tom Homan, was one of the authors of Project 2025 and a hard-core supporter of mass detentions and deportations.

This sure doesn’t seem like a retreat or a meaningful change.

A pullback usually involves a face-saving show of force

All of the above is true, and we shouldn’t kid ourselves or ever let down our guard. Forcing Bovino out and back to California may be a temporary win for Democratic activists and a humiliation for the far right who admire him, but it doesn’t change policy or reality on the ground, at least in the near term.

But continued ICE presence also means the protests will keep going. They will continue to meet ICE everywhere they are until federal forces are truly out of the city of Minneapolis. Then they will move on to another target. Rinse and repeat.

We need to understand the game here. ICE raids will continue precisely because Trump needs a face-saving way out. It’s often the case that, before an invading power agrees to a ceasefire or a pullback, it will maintain or even increase the brutality of its attacks.

We saw Putin do that before peace talks with Ukraine, and we should expect to see Trump and Homan do it before federal agents start to leave Minneapolis in significant numbers. The point is to gain maximum leverage on demands and to signal that the regime is not retreating from a place of weakness but rather from one of strength.

But make no mistake: A retreat is still a retreat, no matter how much noise and chaos the enemy makes while pulling out.

The Trump White House has ordered ICE into Maine for its next enforcement theater. It is doing this even though a critical Senate race that could decide the Senate majority will take place in that state in November.

ICE is rapidly becoming politically radioactive, so the last thing Republican Susan Collins wants is an outpouring of activism and outrage in her state.

I’m sure she will express deep concerns.

I’m also betting the people of Maine step up in defense of their rights and liberties in the same way we have seen so many brave Minnesotans do.

If there is any silver lining to all of this, it is this: The regime’s facism is now unmasked and clear for all to see. Trump may believe that changing the people in charge will somehow placate the public, but brutality and lawlessness are already baked into the department. Nothing but shuttering DHS for good will change that.

In the meantime, we need to prepare for more lawlessness and more atrocities wherever ICE and CBP are deployed."