EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Campus Republicans at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire thought it would great fun for their monthly meeting on Halloween week: Come in costume as an ICE agent. It backfired when they posted photos online. The reaction was viral for making light of President Trump’s deadly serious deportation arrests, which, depending on the source, have totaled 100,000 to 258,000 since January. There is no glee in it. Not even Trump makes light of the deportation raids. William Garcia, the Democratic chair for Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District, which includes Eau Claire, was hardly alone in calling the event racist. There were Repunlicanans, however, who circled the wagons. The state College Republicans organization posted:
“Of course leftists are freaking out all over Instagram. Can we get a round of applause for these patriots?”
Fred Kappus, chair of the Eau Claire County Republican Party, dismissed negative responses as “feigned Democratic outrage.” The thrust of responses, however, was negative: “Distasteful. ‘Mocking.” “Demeaning.” “Cruel.” The Wisconsin Young Democrats organization condemned the event as “trivialization of the suffering of real people.”
GOP fun and games? Depends on who ask. One photo shows a burly ICE agent with body armor, an ICE label on his back, an American flag scarf around his neck, and dark glasses. He’s cuffing a diminutive woman dressed in a bandana, gold chain, a white tank top, and painted-on tattoos. In other words, said critics: A stereotypical yielding Latino immigrant.