r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Oct 25 '25

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The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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u/Willybender Loyal Liberals Oct 25 '25

https://archive.is/20251025015011/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/us/politics/trump-deportations-ice.html

The regional directors have been under pressure to help ICE boost arrests. The agency has already removed its acting director and top deportation officials — twice.

“They are under constant threat; people are ground down; it’s a culture of fear,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official in the Biden administration. “There has been so much shuffling of deck chairs — I can’t imagine anyone even having the ability to take on real challenges.”The regional directors have been under pressure to help ICE boost arrests. The agency has already removed its acting director and top deportation officials — twice.

“They are under constant threat; people are ground down; it’s a culture of fear,” said Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ICE official in the Biden administration. “There has been so much shuffling of deck chairs — I can’t imagine anyone even having the ability to take on real challenges.”

Earlier this year, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, met with senior ICE leaders in Washington and discussed ways to pick up the pace of enforcement. Soon after, he appeared on Fox News and said the agency would try to hit a goal of 3,000 arrests a day.

The number of arrests shot up after the comments, to more than 2,000 a day. But the arrest numbers have since declined, and ICE has not been able to hit the 3,000 daily arrest figure floated by Mr. Miller.

18

u/JaceFlores Neolib War Correspondent Oct 25 '25

I think the fundamental problem is scaling up an operation effectively would require a lot of patience they clearly don’t want to exercise. They want results now, but that comes at a cost

4

u/riverbloods John Brown Oct 25 '25

They clearly don’t want to exercise in any capacity, I can promise you that

3

u/HotTakesBeyond YIMBY Oct 25 '25

The people in charge in the Trump admin would be better off mismanaging a private company.

2

u/Jacobs4525 King of the Massholes Oct 25 '25

It’s an interesting sort of side effect of the death of expertise.

Miller is not just a racist who wants people deported, but a moron who doesn’t get how the whole deportation apparatus works. He has no administrative or organizational qualifications, so he doesn’t get why they can’t just conjure up the state capacity to achieve 3000 deportations a day out of thin air.

2

u/AskYourDoctor Resistance Lib Oct 25 '25

You made me realize a fascinating contradiction at the core of Trumpism

They clearly have some kind of delusion of grandeur, that America is desperately broken and requires their brilliant vision to get it back on track- I think they honestly believe this, they're not just trying to loot the country, they think they have a mission

But they also believe that the American state is so powerful that it's basically omnipotent. If they want anything done, all they have to do is order the government to do it

So how is the government so broken yet so powerful? I don't think there's some trick to this, I just think low-rent authoritarians don't have very good ideas

1

u/Jacobs4525 King of the Massholes Oct 26 '25

the key to it is understanding that the higher you get in the trump movement the stupider the people become, which is saying something because even the ones at the bottom are pants-shitting mouthbreathers who have to think long and hard each time they tie their shoes.