Heidi Li FeldmanA super-militarized ICE is getting more and more violent. After assaulting a musician playing the theme from “Ghostbusters”, ICE took her out of Oregon, to Washington state, where she remains in jail. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/portland-ice-clarinet-arrested-protest-b2845329.html 1/
In Chicago today, federal agents intentionally rammed a car they were pursuing, causing the car to crash. The agents tear-gassed protesters who gathered at the scene of the crash. Do review the photos in this excellent reporting from Chicago Sun-Times. https://chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/2025/10/14/crash-involving-immigration-agents-in-east-side-leads-to-tear-gas-detentions 2/
Feds ram SUV after chase down residential street in Chicago, then tear-gas crowd
The crash happened late Tuesday morning near 105th Street and Avenue N in the East Side neighborhood. Two men being pursued were arrested as were two bystanders. The crash drew dozens of neighbors who protested the tactics of immigration agents.
I’m sure that the Trump regime will soon invoke the Insurrection Act, despite the fact that it is the proximate cause of the violence it will use to justify doing so. 3/
Here’s what is significant about the Insurrection Act. It temporarily suspends the Posse Comitatus rule and allows the president to deploy the military to assist civilian authorities with law enforcement. See https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/252. 4/
Don’t be misled by the benign sounding “assist with law enforcement”: once in U.S. cities under the Insurrection Act, federal troops will occupy those cities. 5/
Both the language of the Insurrection Act itself and Supreme Court precedent interpreting give the President tremendous latitude to invoke the Act at his or her discretion. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/insurrection-act-explained 6/
There are possible grounds for challenging Trump if he does invoke the Insurrection Act. You can get a good idea of these here. https://protectdemocracy.org/work/legal-challenges-insurrection-act/ But the ultimate success of these is unlikely given the commitment to affording Trump power the Roberts Court has demonstrated. And of course along the way the Trump regime will run to the Roberts Court to stay any restraining orders issued by lower courts. 7/
In any event, even if the Roberts Court were to permit a lower court to invalidate any invocation of the Insurrection Act by Trump, by the time that happens, federal troops in U.S. cities will likely have wrought even more violence then federal agents already have. 8/
There’s no decisive way to ward off Trump invoking the Insurrection Act. As I noted in the earlier posts in this thread, the Trump regime is manufacturing the violence it will use to give itself political cover to do so. One thing people should NOT do is stop protesting. 9/
Fal61mav70In fact, massive nonviolent protests are perhaps the only way to make it clear that it is politically unacceptable for Trump to use the Insurrection Act to put troops into Portland, Chicago, and any other places ICE is needlessly causing chaos. This is why it is imperative to show up at a #NoKings protest this Saturday, October 18. Go to https://www.nokings.org/ to find the one nearest you. 10/10
FelixThanks for sharing 💪
Rorshok