The cool, military-looking guy above is former lobbyist Chad Wolf. [Insert Donald Trump “Drain the swamp!” soundbite.] As I understand it, Wolf has never served a day in the military. He did, however, attend Southern Methodist University on a tennis scholarship, and earn an undergraduate degree in history. And, now, because he was in the right place at the right time, and ingratiated himself to Donald Trump, he’s in charge of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), overseeing the department’s $50 billion budget and 240,000 employees. [Wolf had been Chief of Staff to DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, when Donald Trump fired her. It was in that role, as I understand it, that he helped draft the Trump Administration’s controversial and immoral family separation policy.]
It’s worth noting that Wolf has not been confirmed by the Senate for the position he holds. It’s also worth noting that he’s the person ostensibly responsible for dispatching DHS officers to Portland, where they are now unconstitutionally snatching U.S. citizens off the street in unmarked vans and beating protesters.
Here Wolf is, earlier today, responding to questions about his having sent federal paramilitary units to Portland over the objections of state and local officials… “I don’t need invitations by the state, state mayors, or state governors to do our job,” he said. “We’re going to do that, whether they like us there or not.”
And, today, there’s talk of Wolf sending federal officers into two more primarily Democratic cities; Chicago and Detroit.
Before we get into that, though, here’s a little background by way of Carrie Cordero, the Robert M. Gates Senior Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, on how it came to pass that this relatively new federal agency — DHS — came to be politicized.
…During the campaign of 2016, candidate Trump ingratiated himself to the Border Patrol union, previewing a potential politicization of that workforce. In a spring 2019 visit with border agents at Calexico, California, Trump indicated a willingness to use his pardon authority if CBP refused to allow migrants U.S. entry pursuant to existing asylum laws.
Meanwhile, the president has marginalized the FBI while pivoting to DHS to carry out his “law and order” agenda. Trump has fired, removed or pressured to resign nearly every Senate-confirmed leadership official in DHS, leaving the department with inadequate leadership relative to the size, budget, and broad scope of responsibilities. Last year, Garrett Graff and I warned that DHS’s trouble stemming from internal public corruption, inadequate training and lack of transparency makes it more susceptible to inappropriate political pressure.
In May, as a result of a year’s worth of research and consultation with former DHS senior officials, former legislative staff and outside experts, I put forth a report arguing that DHS requires immediate congressional attention to improve its internal oversight and accountability mechanisms. In particular, the report called attention to the need for modernized and department-wide guidelines for conducting law enforcement activity, as well as updating the department’s mission, which has become wildly out of sync with its day to day activities.
In short: The extent to which DHS is becoming almost a rogue arm of federal law enforcement should not surprise anyone who has followed the department for the last four years…
So, back to the present day… We all suspected that what we were seeing play out in Portland was just Trump testing the waters to see what he could get away with. And now it looks as though his plan to crack down on cities that he perceives to be against him is getting ready to move into its next phase. The Chicago Tribune is reporting today that Wolf is preparing to deploy approximately 150 federal agents to Chicago this week. And, according to Sinclair Broadcasting’s Group Michigan political reporter Mikenzie Frost, Detroit may be next. Following are the responses that Frost received from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Dana Nessel when she reached out for comments.
This smacks of fascism pure and simple, and Wolf has to be Brought before Congress immediately to explain his actions as the acting head of DHS. As Senator Cory Booker said today, “What we’re seeing in Portland is what we would find under authoritarian regimes —- not the US. This horrific violence at the hands of these federal officers must end, and Attorney General Barr & DHS Secretary Chad Wolf must come before Congress to answer for their actions.”
Please, if you’re going to do one meaningful thing today, make it finding the phone number of an elected official, and calling to urge that they join Booker in demanding that Wolf and Barr be brought before Congress. What we’re seeing happen right now in Portland, and what may soon be coming to Michigan, has no place in the United States of America. And we cannot afford to just wait and see how things play out at the ballot box. You can be certain, if we don’t step up and squash this now, it’ll just get worse as we approach November, and Donald Trump tries desperately to stay in power. We cannot allow our Democratic cities to be thrown into martial law under the pretext of “law and order”.
Thankfully, the people of Portland are standing up and doing their part. Now we need to do ours.
