Former United States President Barack Obama has launched a scathing attack on the immigration enforcement operations carried out under President Donald Trump, comparing the conduct of federal agents to behavior typically seen “in dictatorships” and authoritarian countries .
In an interview with left-wing political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen released on Saturday, Obama condemned the operations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minnesota, where thousands of federal agents conducted sweeping raids and arrests over several weeks .
“The rogue behavior of agents of the federal government is deeply concerning and dangerous,” Obama said, going further than his previous criticism last month .
He described the actions of federal officers, which included two fatal shootings that intensified pressure on the Trump administration’s mass crackdown, as the kind of conduct that “in the past we’ve seen in authoritarian countries and we’ve seen in dictatorships” .
Despite his harsh assessment, the only Black president in American history expressed hope in the response from ordinary citizens who pushed back against the operations in subzero weather .
“Not just randomly, but in a systematic, organized way, citizens saying, ‘this is not the America we believe in,’ and we’re going to fight back, and we’re going to push back with the truth and with cameras and with peaceful protests,” Obama said .
“That kind of heroic, sustained behavior in subzero weather by ordinary people is what should give us hope. As long as we have folks doing that, I feel like we’re going to get through this” .
The aggressive immigration operation in Minnesota, which triggered large protests and nationwide outrage, was officially ended on Thursday by Trump’s border czar Tom Homan .
In the wide-ranging interview, Obama also addressed the deterioration of political discourse in America, responding for the first time to a post on President Trump’s social media that depicted him and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys .
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