[cyberax]

BTW, another example of autonomy is the fact that Trump had to send ICE agents in the first place. He could not just order the local police to perform the raids, there's simply no chain of command for that.

In Russia, it would have been one phone call from the Kremlin to the local chief of police.

[vkou]

You'll find that in most countries, town cops don't take orders from the federal government.

[cyberax]

Not so. For example, in France all the police are overseen centrally, and the president can take direct control.

The US is actually unusual in that the President does not have _any_ local control over police. You'll see a similar pattern pretty much everywhere: schools, construction, licensing, urban policy, etc.