‘It Would Be a Cold Day in Hell Before I would Consent to a Unilateral, Uninvited Intervention in One of My Cities.’ Tom Ridge – The Whole Interview

On Tuesday (July 21), Michael Smerconish interviewed  Tom Ridge on his daily SiriusXM Radio program.

First elected in 1982, Ridge served his northwest Pennsylvania district in the U.S. House for six terms. He was elected Governor in 1994, and re-elected in 1998. He resigned as governor in October of 2001 to head up what was then the Office of Homeland Security. In 2003, Homeland Security became a cabinet level department, and Ridge was named as the first Secretary of that department.

Beginning at 6:66 of the interview Smerconish and Ridge discuss President Trump’s deployment of various law enforcement agencies to Portland, and the possibitlity of their deployment to other “Democrat-Controlled” cities across the U.S.

Smerconish: I know you know the issue. The Whitehouse has said they may deploy additional trroops – Homeland Security Investigations special agents – to American cities to quell unrest. What thoughts do you have on the subject?

Ridge: Well Michael, I guess I bring two perspectives to that – My first as Secretary of Homeland Security – the department was established to protect America from the ever present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president’s personal militia. And then as governor, I go back to those days and say, had I been governor, even now, I would welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in any of the cities. But I would tell you Michael, it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to a unilateral, uninvited intervention in one of my cities. So I’ve got two perspectives, and I wish the president would take the more collaborative approach towards fighting this lawlessness than the unilateral approach that he’s taken. 

Smerconish: It sounds to me that you have two perspectives that come to the same conclusion. 

Ridge: Amen. Either way, I don’t care for it at all. DHS wasn’t designed for that purpose. And as governor, working in concert with the Federal Government to addres these problems, I think would greatly enhance the possibiity of a positive outcome. When you work unilaterally, or perhaps even against the work that’s going on in the states and the communities, I think it’s counter-productive, and it sends the wrong signal. Frankly I think it sends a horrible signal globally if we’re just going to send in uninvited federal agents to deal with a state and local problem. 

Smerconish: I did not know that there were Homeland Security investigations Special Agents that are even able to be deployed in this kind of scenario.

Ridge: I don’t recall that being involved at all in the organizational structure that we set up many, many years ago. I think that by Executive Fiat, that some of these officers, be it Immigration and Customes Enforcement; or Border Patrol – what have you – and there are law enforcement agencies within DHS, but the very notion that they would be moving on their own, uninvited, unsolicited – to address what is a real problem, but without the consent of the governor, and frankly without the work of the local officials – I mean we have 700,000 men and women throughout this country that risk their lives every day to try to combat these issues – violent crime – and to ignore that reality and to move indepedently of them, I think is wrongheaded. And as I said before, DHS wasn’t supposed to be pulled into as part of the president’s personal militia. 

Smerconish: Well not to belabor the point, but apparently, it’s not the first time the administration deployed these same individuals to so-called Sanctuary Cities, in an enhanced arrest campaign against undocumented immigrants. I know that we have a problem with folks coming to the country and not playing by the rules, but that doesn’t seem to be within the Campaign Against Global Terror.

Ridge Well, you know, that’s exactly right. The jurisdiction of ICE – it cleary is to identify and thwart illegal immigration. There is no dispute about that. And I think we have to accept that. But I would like to think, based on my own experience as Secretary of the department, that that kind of effort is done in concert and cooperation, with advance notice, and with the aid and assistance of local officials. And in the event you don’t get that local cooperation, then I think the president or the secretary has to have a good and private conversation with either the mayor or the governor. But just dropping federal agents into the community without that kind of collaboration, I think long-term is counter-productive. We’re most effective in law enforcement, just as we are with a joint-terrorism taskforces, when the federal government works with the state and locals to combat terrorism. That’s the kind of arrangement, that’s the kind of cooperation and collaboration – that is missing in this enterprise. And ultimately, we won’t be as successful as we could be, absent that collaboration.