The Influencer-Administration Complex

Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️

It’s a natural fit.

On the one hand, DHS spent the past year advertising its own brutality. That’s partly happened through dog whistles and outright shouted references to white nationalism; it’s taken place as well through actions like the CECOT removals or widely broadcast videos of rough and militarized detention operations.

On the other, there are the influencers. They’re largely right-wing streamers and social media personalities, people like Andy Ngo or Nick Sortor who travel to areas with left-leaning protests or, more recently, heavy DHS operations and zoom in on the most violent incidents.

What’s new is the apparent commonality of interest.

The Trump administration appears to be doing its ICE occupations as part of its larger effort to intimidate immigrants into leaving the country and to cow the opposition more broadly. It’s become symbiotic, in some respects. Per a recent lawsuit filed by the ACLU, ICE brought a social media influencer to record the arrest of a man who, it turned out, was a U.S. citizen. Oops. Reporting from DHS’s surge into Chicago last year documented similar instances.

That all has created a disturbing feedback loop. Influencers video the most chaotic incidents, and then demand escalation from the administration. The effect on either side is the same: to magnify the danger and draw the public’s attention to the violence.

— Josh Kovensky

Support For Abolishing ICE Grows

Public opinion is souring on Trump’s immigration forces amid violent clashes in Minnesota, where the administration has dispatched hundreds of Customs and Border Patrol and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.

Several new surveys out this week show increasing opposition to ICE’s aggressive tactics and a desire for agents to be held accountable. While these polls reflected a stark partisan divide, a growing number of Republicans appear to be put off by the Trump administration’s immigration policy. Here are the numbers:

• A slightly larger share of Americans (47%) are now in favor of abolishing ICE than are opposed to doing so (43%), and 50% of respondents said Renee Good’s shooting was not justified vs. 30% who said that it was, according to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted between Jan. 9-12. 
• Approval of Trump’s approach to immigration was “at its lowest point since he returned to office a year ago,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Jan. 12-13. (This survey also found that 59% of Republicans are in favor of immigration officers using force, even with a serious risk of injury or death, in order to prioritize arrests, compared to 39% opposed, which is disturbing to say the least. In contrast, 96% of Democrats preferred to avoid injuries even if it meant limiting the number of arrests.)
• A majority of respondents (53%) disapprove of ICE’s tactics and 55% support ending mass ICE raids targeting immigrants, per an ACLU/YouGov poll fielded from Jan. 9-12. A significant number (60%) also want state elected officials “to take action to protect residents from harmful federal immigration enforcement activity” and 71% want an independent investigation into the fatal shooting of Renee Good.

Some Democratic lawmakers are taking heed. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) has cautioned against voting for an upcoming funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security unless it comes with some constraints on ICE agents. Progressives like Reps. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) are renewing their calls for the agency to be abolished outright.

— Allegra Kirkland

Colorado SoS Warns Against Clemency For Tina Peters

Tina Peters — the former Mesa County, Colorado, election administrator who went rogue and was convicted for breaching her office’s own voting equipment as a way to investigate lies about the integrity of the 2020 election — is trying to overturn her conviction. 

Peters, who is a close ally of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, granted an unauthorized person access to Mesa County’s voting equipment. The data from that equipment was later leaked online. 

“She has shown no remorse. She has not taken responsibility for her actions, the harms that she did have been used repeatedly to spread conspiracy theories, falsehood and fuel election lies and threats to election officials in our infrastructure,” Democratic Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told TPM of Peters’ lawyers’ efforts to overturn her conviction in a state appeals court this week. 

Griswold said Peters’ actions and conspiracy theories continue to impact election administrators across the country because she helped fuel what the secretary of state describes as Colorado’s “threat environment and disinformation environment.”

“I would not understate her effect on Colorado elections,” she said. “Of course, she is not the only person fueling this environment that the president has a large part in, as well as others.”

Peters is currently serving a nine year sentence. 

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has said he is considering clemency. Trump pardoned Peters last month and has threatened to withhold federal funding to Colorado if Peters is not released. Peters was convicted on state charges, so Trump’s pardon does not release her.

Mesa County clerk and recorder who was elected to replace Peters in 2022, Bobbie Gross, told TPM that the county is still reeling from the aftermath of Peters’ crimes, and that her release would only reignite the damage she started. 

“If she is released, I believe that it could spark some discontent in the nation, not just Mesa County, but Colorado and other places,” Gross said. 

— Khaya Himmelman

Virginia Dems Pass Measure That Will Ask Voters to Approve Redistricting

The Democratic-led redistricting effort moved forward in Virginia this week after both the Democratic-led House of Delegates and the state Senate advanced a redistricting constitutional amendment that they plan to place before voters. 

The ballot referendum, which passed in a 62-33 vote in the state House on Wednesday and was approved along party lines in the Senate on Friday, would give the General Assembly temporary authority to redraw congressional districts mid-cycle by bypassing the state’s redistricting commission, if approved by voters. The new congressional map could potentially give Democrats four additional U.S. House seats.

The fate of the amendment will now fall into the hands of voters, who will vote on the measure later this year. 

Virginia’s redistricting effort comes as Democratic-majority state legislatures around the country try to combat the Trump administration’s months-long gerrymandering pressure campaign, which has involved bullying red states to redraw their congressional maps as Republicans grasp at maintaining control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections.

Although Trump’s pressure campaign has seen early wins, it has, in recent months, appeared to be losing steam. 

— Khaya Himmelman