When the rhetoric turns to violence
Photo Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
For months anti-ICE rhetoric has been spewed by prominent politicians on the left. The rhetoric is now turning into violence against our federal agents and responding officers.
Minnesota’s Governor Walz has been one of the prominent offenders to stoke the rhetorical fires. During a May commencement address to the University of Minnesota Law School, Walz stated:
“Donald Trump’s modern day Gestapo is scooping folks off the street. They’re in unmarked vans wearing masks being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons. No chance to mount a defense, no chance to kiss loved one goodbye. [They’re] just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into these vans and disappear.”
Lesser-known politicians, such as Cynthia Gonzalez, the Vice Mayor of Cudahy California, have taken things a step further. In a June social media post, Gonzalez called on local Hispanic gangs to step up and fight back against ICE agents in their community.
“You guys are always tagging everything up, claiming hood, and now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain’t a peep out of you.”
“We’re out there fighting our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people and, like, where you at?”
Recently the rhetoric has come home to roost, and our federal agents are paying a terrible price as they carry out the thankless job of enforcing our immigration laws — an effort made all the worse by the malfeasance of the last administration which allowed an estimated 13 million people who crossed our borders illegally to remain in the country.
In late June, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that assaults against its agents had increased by over 500%.
“Every day the men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens. Make no mistake, Democrat politicians like Hakeem Jeffries, Mayor Wu of Boston, Governor Tim Walz, and Mayor Bass of Los Angeles are contributing to the surge in assaults of our ICE officers through their repeated vilification and demonization of ICE. From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi Gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is despicable. This violence against ICE must end.”
The violence against ICE has not ended, however. This past weekend in Texas, two violent ambushes occurred — one at an ICE detention center in Alvarado, and another at a Border Crossing station in McAllen.
The Alvarodo ambush occurred on July 4 and involved at least ten suspects, some of whom fired a rifle at agents and responding officers outside the detention facility. Three agents/officers were injured, including a responding police officer who was shot in the neck. Ten defendants have been charged in federal court with three counts of attempted murder.
The McAllen ambush occurred on July 7 and involved a single suspect from Michigan who drove into the Border Patrol facility lot and opened fire with a rifle on agents working there. A responding officer was injured during the gun battle, reportedly struck in the leg. The suspect was shot and killed by agents.
The violence directed at our federal law enforcement agents and responding local law enforcement officers is completely unacceptable. It’s also sadly inevitable in an era when our politicians can stoke rhetorical fires and simply walk away when people get burned.