America is under siege by lawlessness masquerading as protest, and former ICE acting director John Torres is blunt about who should pay the price: the attackers. Torres warned on national television that efforts to block and assault Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel are not peaceful demonstrations but criminal acts that demand prosecution, and he insisted immigration enforcement will continue despite the chaos.
We saw that lawlessness up close when protesters blocked ICE vans outside a Manhattan courthouse, forcing police to clear the way and leading to arrests of those obstructing federal officers. Torres rightly labelled those blockades and the networks that shield illegal entrants as crossing from civil disobedience into criminal conspiracy, a distinction too many politicians on the left refuse to make.
The threat to agents is not hypothetical — assaults and attacks on ICE officers have spiked dramatically, with agency leaders warning of staggering increases in violence against federal immigration personnel. When you hear figures in the hundreds of percent, this isn’t hyperbole; it’s a dangerous trend fueled by political theater and unchecked rhetoric that puts officers and communities at risk.
Conservatives who defend the rule of law should be outraged that some public officials and activists treat obstruction as a badge of honor instead of a prosecutable offense. Torres and other former officials have made it clear: people who physically block, harass, or assault federal agents must face real consequences for obstruction and assault, not platitudes from politicians more interested in pandering than public safety.
Policy matters: Torres has pointed out there are lawful tools to keep enforcing immigration laws, from conventional immigration courts to partnerships like section 287(g), and the administration has other avenues if one path is blocked by litigation. If America is serious about stopping the anarchy, leaders must fund enforcement, empower prosecutors to pursue violent offenders, and stop coddling jurisdictions that harbor lawbreakers.
Patriotic Americans who value order and safety should demand that elected officials stop cheering on mobs and start enforcing the law. We owe our men and women in uniform the backing to do their jobs, and we owe victims of crime the justice that only firm prosecution delivers. Stand with ICE officers, support prosecution of attackers, and refuse to let political posturing derail basic law and order.
