Operation Trojan Horse exposes ICE’s lawless campaign of fear

When federal agents leapt out of a rented Penske truck in the parking lot of a Los Angeles Home Depot this week, their masked faces and assault rifles may have made for dramatic television. But the show of force masked something far uglier: a premeditated violation of a federal court order, a betrayal of public trust and yet another episode in the Trump administration’s campaign of fear and cruelty against vulnerable communities.

ICE and Border Patrol called it “Operation Trojan Horse.” The name is apt as the operation not only involved the deceptive luring of workers under false pretenses, but also deceiving the American people, who were promised a system of law enforcement targeting “dangerous criminals.” Instead, what unfolded was an ambush on hardworking day laborers, many of whom wer