Stand down?

Reader question:

Please explain “stand down”, as in this headline: Trump Ordered to Stand Down by Federal Judge, Stop Warrantless Immigration Arrests.

My comments:

Here, “Trump” stands for the Trump Administration.

A federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to stop arresting immigrants randomly on the street.

In the news, ICE (which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents have been rounding up people in American cities even though they have no warrants to do so.

For regular policemen to make an arrest, they have to produce a warrant from authorities. That is the norm and, well, understandable.

These ICE agents, on the other hand, work not like regular police but like, um, regular gangsters, for lack of a better word. They just stop people in the street, ask them to produce legal papers and, if not, detain them – with the aim of eventually throwing them out of the country.

That’s outrageous.

Oh, well, I see that we’re getting away from the main point of discussion. So, let’s return to the term “stand down”.

Literally, “stand down” is the opposite of “stand up”. In the courtroom, for example, a witness is asked to “stand up” and make a testimony, i.e. tell the judge and jury what he has witnessed or seen.

Literally, he stands up, up on the witness stand and testify. Afterwards, the witness is asked to stand down – down from the witness stand.

In the militarily, a soldier on guard is also said to be standing up. In this sense, he is on duty – to stand guard, assuming a tense and upright posture while watching for possible threats and danger.

When this job is done, the soldier is told to stand down. Now that he’s relieved of his duty, he can relax.

Hence and, idiomatically, when people ask to stand down, they want to be relieved of their duty, whatever that is. In our top example, that duty is rounding up people in the street. When the federal judge told the Trump Administration to stand down, he or she asks them to stop it. They mean to say, of course, that the practice is unlawful and, therefore, illegal.

All right and good. Now, we can all stand down and, for relaxation, read a few media examples:

1. Border Patrol agents will no longer wear body cameras during field operations. This decision came after a viral social media post showed how body cameras can identify individual agents.

“All U.S. Border Patrol Agents will cease the use of body-worn cameras (BWC) in all operational environments,” Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a statement to NewsNation, which initially reported the news.

According to Fox News, a post on the website Reddit claimed that the app BLE Radar uses Bluetooth to scan for low-energy devices. This includes phones, smartwatches, and speakers. Apparently, this can also track CBP body cameras from a distance of 100 yards and can also trigger improvised explosive devices (Fox News):

CBP officials sent out a directive following the post informing agents of a “potential security risk” while immediately pulling body cameras from use in the field.

“Pending completion of investigation and risk mitigation, all Agents will stand down the use of their BWCs [body worn cameras] until further notice. Additional guidance and information will be disseminated as it is received,” the directive said.

- Border Agents Will Stop Wearing Body Cameras, Townhall.com, February 17, 2017.

2. Asked to condemn white supremacists on Tuesday night, President Trump instead named a militant white supremacist group and issued a call to arms.

Moderator Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump if he was willing to “condemn white supremacists and militia groups.” He referenced cities such as Kenosha and Portland, hotbeds of civil unrest where much of the violence been initiated by far-right extremists and militia members.

At first, Trump appeared to be receptive to condemning far-right extremists, but when pressed by Sen. Joe Biden and Wallace, he didn’t exactly do that:

Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and in Portland?

Sure I’m prepared to do that. (Biden interjects: Do it.) But I would say, I would say, almost everything I see is from the left wing, not the right wing.

Wallace: So what are you, what are you saying – Trump: I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace. Wallace: Then do it, sir. Biden: Do it. Say it.

Trump: You wanna call ’em – what do you wanna call ’em? Hold on – Give me a name, give me a name. Go ahead, who would you like me to condemn? Wallace: White supremacists – white supremacists and right-wing militia. (Biden interjects: Proud Boys, Proud Boys.)

Trump: Proud Boys? Stand back and stand by, but I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, somebody’s gotta do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right wing problem, this is a left-wing problem.”

- What Did Trump Mean When He Told Proud Boys to ‘Stand Back and Stand By’? RollingStone.com, September 29, 2020.

3. Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes has announced she will stand down at next year’s Holyrood election.

In a letter to First Minister John Swinney, the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch MSP said she did not “wish to seek re-election and miss any more of the precious early years of family life”.

Ms Forbes is expected to remain in her role until the Scottish parliament election, scheduled for May 2026.

Mr Swinney paid tribute to his SNP colleague for her “invaluable contribution to public life over the last 10 years”.

Ms Forbes said it had been an “incredible privilege” to serve those in the Highlands since 2016.

She wrote: “I am in no doubt about the scale of my duties as a local representative, an activist and campaigner, and a government minister.

“Quite rightly, this job entails long days far from home, constant attention and total dedication.”

- Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes to stand down as MSP in 2026, News.Sky.com, August 4, 2025.

本文仅代表作者本人观点，与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题，尊重他人，禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）