ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- As a journalist, there are at least three things that really annoy me.

One is when elected officials or public servants who bristle whenever folks in my tribe tell them how to do their jobs then turn around and tell us how to do ours.

Another is when government officials gaslight members of the press, trying to convince us to believe what's coming out of their mouths and not what we're seeing with our own eyes.

And the final one is when a public official who belongs to an administration that stokes fear and racism gets offended when a reporter or columnist calls out the fear and racism.

You'll find all three in a recent exchange involving Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. At a July 18 news conference, a reporter asked whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents use racial profiling to make arrests. Noem got angry and defensive.

"That has been another false narrative that has been put out there in the media that I absolutely want to throw back at you and say that is absolutely false," she said. "And don't you dare ever say that again. We have judges out there and other individuals saying people have been targeted that way, and it's not true."

Methinks the secretary doth protest too much.

It wasn't smart of Noem to stick her neck out and defend the thousands of agents who work for her department. She's not a lawyer, a former military officer or a former law enforcement agent. She's not trained to be careful with language. Instead, she's a career politician whose natural instinct is to bend the truth -- sometimes, until it breaks.

Every day, across America, there are probably thousands of ICE raids taking place. It's silly for Noem to think she can vouch for every operation as legitimate and free of racial bias. She can't know that.

The same goes for Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who told The Guardian that "any claims that individuals have been 'targeted' by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE."

All anyone needs to do is watch a few of the thousands of videos posted on social media apps such as TikTok, and they can see for themselves that immigration agents -- and those who impersonate them -- are using racial profiling as a shortcut to meet the 3,000 arrests per day quota set by the White House.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Court Judge Maame E. Frimpong has ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven counties in Southern California, including Los Angeles County -- which is the national epicenter of the Trump raids. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit that accused the administration of systematically targeting brown-skinned people. In her order, Frimpong wrote that there was a "mountain of evidence" that this is happening.

A three-judge appeals court agreed, upholding the lower court ruling.

Administration officials don't even understand the laws they're trying to enforce. Border czar Tom Homan said during a recent interview on Fox News that U.S. immigration agents were permitted to detain and question people based on "physical appearance."

"Look, people need to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol don't need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them. They just need totality of the circumstances, right? They just go through the observation, get our typical facts -- based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions."

That's exactly wrong, according to any immigration attorney who didn't sleep through law school. It's true that U.S. immigration agents only need "reasonable suspicion" to initiate a stop or a search whereas local or state police require "probable cause." But reasonable suspicion has to be based on more than race or ethnicity.

Of course, the Trump administration's deportation crackdown is all about racism and xenophobia. Those things are baked into just about everything President Donald Trump does, including signing executive orders that make English the official language and outlaw programs that foster diversity, equity and inclusion.

That's why those undocumented immigrants in the United States who are Irish, Ukrainian or Russian can still sleep well at night. They're not in play. They have white skin. And -- for this administration -- that's the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card.

That's the truth. I'm going to say it whether Noem likes it or not. Because, as a public servant, she works for me. I don't work for her.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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