SWAT Brings Out The Big Guns When Anti-ICE Protesters Try Blockading Federal Building
The hot new thing to do on the left these days in response to President Donald Trump’s no-nonsense, “zero tolerance” policies on illegal immigration is to protest and call for the abolition of the agency tasked with upholding such laws, namely the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
As such, leftists across the country — predominately in liberal-leaning cities — have staged protests or set up encampments outside of ICE facilities in a bid to harass and prevent the agents from effectively doing their jobs.
The latest gambit of this sort occurred this week in the Denver area as protesters set up camp on Sunday along the public sidewalk in front of the Centennial ICE facility in Aurora, Colorado, only to see their efforts busted up by police on Thursday, according to The Hill.
Perhaps borrowing a page from their leftist comrades in Portland, Oregon, the protesters in Colorado attempted to block off the entrance to the facility’s parking lot by forming a human chain that utilized real chains inside of long cylinders to keep themselves attached to each other.
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Unlike in Portland, where the local law enforcement agencies essentially “stood down” and allowed protesters to wreak havoc for weeks against the federal officials — leaving it almost entirely up to federal agents to clear out the area so the mess could be cleaned up — local law enforcement agencies in Colorado stepped up and provided an assist to their federal colleagues who were being harassed and targeted by the antics of the unlawfully assembled group.
The Denver Post reported that a SWAT team with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office arrived on scene late Thursday afternoon and began the process of detaching the protesters from each other and taking them into custody.
Armed with riot gear, rifles and power tools, the sheriff’s office SWAT team used those power tools to carefully cut through the cylinders and chains to separate the protesters that had stretched themselves across the entrance/exit of the facility, preventing anyone from coming or going in a vehicle, according to KDVR.
At least eight individuals were arrested once all was said and done, presumably the eight people who had formed the dual human chains that blocked off the facility’s parking lot.
The protest that began on Sunday was intended to last all week, that is until the police showed up and put a stop to their unlawful shenanigans.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement fully respects the Constitutional rights of all people to peacefully express their opinions,” ICE said in a statement. “ICE remains committed to performing its immigration enforcement mission consistent with federal law and agency policy.”
In other words, sorry “peaceful” protesters, but your antics aren’t going to convince us to stop doing our jobs, thank you very much.
Local media outlet Denverite issued a rather favorable report in support of the protesters that noted the sheriff’s office SWAT team had been joined in their efforts to break up the blockade of the ICE facility by local Aurora Police Department officers as well, signifying that local authorities were standing in support of the federal authorities that were essentially under siege … a far cry from what was witnessed — and the protesters may have mistakenly expected — in Portland.
Ironically, the obviously supportive photographer from Denverite — check out his thread of pics and commentary — noted that the effort to blockade the parking lot of the facility was a total fail even before it was broken by the police as the facility’s employees merely drove through the grass to get out of the parking lot once their work day had concluded.
The left seems to be under some illusion that illegally crossing the border and entering this country in a manner other than as is laid out by existing law is somehow not a crime, and that if they just chant a little louder and protest a little harder, the law enforcement agents tasked with enforcing immigration laws will just shrug, give up and go home.
Unfortunately for them, that isn’t how things work in this country, and illegal entry into this country is illegal, no matter how earnestly they wish we had open borders and no immigration laws requiring an enforcement agency.
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