Category: Judicial Watch
The sanctuary city playbook is spreading in red states
I live in a community that, not long ago, was a quiet town outside Austin — one of many places people fled in search of safety, order, and a better quality of life. Today, that same community is rapidly transforming into the very version of Austin many residents hoped to escape.
Growth isn’t the problem. Ideology is.
My community is changing, not because it is growing, but because it is abandoning the principles that once made it worth building a life here.
A dangerous idea has taken hold in America: that enforcing the law is immoral, that accountability is cruelty, and that penalizing criminal behavior matters less than protecting the feelings of those who violate the law.
This worldview didn’t emerge organically. Institutions taught it, activists repeated it, and public officials normalized it until many Americans came to believe the humane response to disorder is deliberate blindness.
Last week, that ideology went on full display in my town.
Federal immigration authorities conducted targeted enforcement operations in the area. Homeland Security professionals carried out lawful, focused actions while doing the job Congress — and the American people — have repeatedly mandated that they do.
Within hours, local social media erupted. Facebook groups, Instagram accounts, and self-styled “community leaders” posted warnings about ICE. Progressive elected officials piled on, condemning the operation and circulating tips on how to avoid federal law enforcement. Some encouraged demonstrations near ICE activity to “drive them out.” Others urged residents to honk at ICE vehicles to alert everyone nearby to the supposed “danger.”
Many Americans shrug this off as routine political theater. What followed was worse.
RELATED: Why ‘anti-ICE protesters’ are useful, delusional idiots
Tim Evans/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Instead of standing firmly behind the rule of law, our local government and law enforcement agencies rushed to distance themselves — not out of principle, but out of fear. City social media accounts quickly clarified that ICE had merely notified the city of a vehicle parked near City Hall and that the city neither supported nor assisted the operation.
The message was unmistakable: Don’t blame us.
Screenshot/City of Buda/X.com
Even more disheartening, the police department issued its own statement emphasizing that it was not cooperating with ICE enforcement activities, noting only that officers responded alongside an ambulance.
Again, the message was clear: We want no part of this.
Screenshot/Kyle Police Department/X.com
This didn’t happen in Minnesota or Illinois. It happened in Texas — a state known nationwide for being tough on crime and historically supportive of immigration enforcement.
It happened just miles from our state Capitol. Yet even here, local entities openly refuse to cooperate with the mandate Americans have repeatedly voted for: enforcing our immigration laws.
In doing so, these institutions accomplished two things — neither defensible.
First, they publicly disavowed the enforcement of federal law, as though lawful authority were something shameful.
Second, they compromised operational security by broadcasting where law enforcement was present and what it was — or was not — doing. In any other context, that would be recognized as reckless. Here, activists applauded it.
Texas leaders should treat this as a warning.
State government must hold every jurisdiction accountable for never becoming a sanctuary — whether by statute or by practice — for illegal immigration and criminal activity. The Texas legislature took a critical step by passing legislation requiring most county sheriffs’ departments to participate in ICE’s 287(g) program. That built a foundation. We need more.
Texas should require all local law enforcement agencies to enter the 287(g) program that best fits their department and to publicly commit to enforcing the law. Accountability cannot stop at county lines. It cannot become optional based on online outrage and activist pressure.
RELATED: Illegal-alien patients drain Texas hospitals, racking up billion-dollar bill — in less than a year
Photo by: John Lazenby/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Just one year ago, the country was overwhelmed daily by mass illegal border crossings. The effort to restore control through lawful enforcement and deportation has only begun. Texas will never address the scale of the problem if cities — especially in red states — can refuse responsibility and pass the buck.
A society cannot function if enforcing the law is treated as oppression and breaking it is reframed as victimhood. Compassion doesn’t require chaos. Justice can’t survive if the people tasked with upholding it feel compelled to apologize for doing their jobs.
My community is changing, not because it is growing, but because it is abandoning the principles that once made it worth building a life here. If we keep going down this path — where enforcing the law becomes controversial and officials fear activists more than disorder — we should not act surprised when the place we moved to becomes indistinguishable from the place we left.
Russiagate Update!
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Feds Demand That ‘King of Fraud’ Gavin Newsom Pay Back $1.3 Billion
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing renewed scrutiny after Trump administration officials demanded that the state repay approximately $1.3 billion…
California sticks with WHO as US exits
Click in for more news from The Hill {beacon} Health Care Health Care The Big Story California sticks with WHO as US exits Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) affirmed his state’s continued departure from current federal health policy by announcing Friday that California will be the first state to join a World Health Organization (WHO)…
Graham Platner Solicits Donations for Maine Anti-ICE Group Led By Accused Somali Fraudsters
Senate candidate Graham Platner (D., Maine) urged supporters to donate to an anti-ICE group led by several Somalis tied to a nonprofit under congressional investigation for allegedly defrauding the state of millions of dollars in Medicaid payments. The day after ICE launched a statewide operation targeting illegal aliens in Maine, Platner promoted the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC), a taxpayer-funded nonprofit that touted its “ICE Watch Hotline” earlier this month. Its board has included Deqa Dhalac and Nathan Davis, who have been named persons of interest in a congressional probe over their leadership roles at Gateway Community Services Maine.
The post Graham Platner Solicits Donations for Maine Anti-ICE Group Led By Accused Somali Fraudsters appeared first on .
Vance crushes false narrative about ICE ‘arresting’ 5-year-old boy
An image was circulated widely this week showing a visibly upset preschooler wearing an oversized hat and Spider-man backpack standing in the company of federal immigration agents. Evidently loath to investigate the circumstances surrounding the photo and what it actually depicts, Democrats and other radicals rushed to condemn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), for instance, suggested ICE had treated the boy like a criminal, while twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris wrote that he “is just a baby. He should be at home with his family, not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center. I am outraged, and you should be too.”
‘No one thinks that makes any sense.’
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) went a step further, accusing ICE of “kidnapping 5-year-olds and using them as bait” and suggesting the agency should be defunded.
The liberal media didn’t appear particularly eager to correct Democrats’ false narrative, which was incubated by woke officials with Columbia Heights Public Schools, where the child was reportedly enrolled.
During his visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance gave the press a reality check, noting that anti-ICE propagandists glossed over some critical information about the incident.
“I actually saw this terrible story while I was coming to Minneapolis,” said the vice president.
“And I see this story, and I’m a father of a 5-year-old — actually, a 5-year-old little boy. And I think to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is terrible. How do we arrest a 5-year-old?'”
“Well I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the 5-year-old was not arrested; that his dad was an illegal alien; and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” said Vance.
Photo by Jim Watson – Pool/Getty Images
Vance told the Minneapolis crowd, “So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that when ICE attempted to arrest the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on Jan. 20, the illegal alien from Ecuador “fled on foot — abandoning his child.”
Marcos Charles, the assistant director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE, indicated on Friday that after the illegal alien ditched his little boy and was arrested, ICE officers “stayed with the child. They cared for him, took him to get something to eat from a drive-thru restaurant, and spent hours ensuring he was taken care of. Again my officers did that. Not his father.”
Charles noted further that people inside the illegal alien’s apparent residence refused to open the door for the young boy and take him back.
According to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the boy’s alleged mother was inside the house and would not let him in even after officers assured her that she wouldn’t be taken into custody.
Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, indicated during a press conference on Thursday that the boy and his father were reunited and are being kept together at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a family holding center in Dilley, Texas.
“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement,” said DHS.
The vice president further suggested that the argument that ICE cannot arrest illegal aliens who have children is unworkable given that’d mean “every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. No one thinks that makes any sense,” said Vance.
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Liberal reporter frustrates American tennis stars by asking the same tired question
The Australian Open has become about politics instead of tennis, thanks to one reporter’s questions.
As men and women have won matches at the tournament in Melbourne, Australia, a male reporter has consistently popped up to ask players about their feelings about current U.S. politics.
‘We are very diverse, we are a home of immigrants.’
“I’ve been asking a lot of the American players just how it feels to play under the American flag right now. And I’m curious how you feel,” the man asked No.4-ranked Amanda Anisimova on Wednesday, with noted vocal fry.
Anisimova was praised for shutting the questions down, but it turns out the same reporter has asked the same divisive question to at least four other American tennis players.
The Women’s Tennis Association’s No.6-ranked Jessica Pegula faced almost the same question on Wednesday, though more specifically about living in Florida.
Pegula’s answer likely won’t please nationalists as much as Anisimova’s did.
“Personally Florida’s been, I think, OK. I think Florida, there’s a big melting pot of different people from all over, in Florida,” the 31-year-old went on. “So I feel like especially me being in South Florida, near Miami, I mean, there’s people of all over the country that come to move to Florida, and there’s a lot of international people that are there. I don’t know if that’s maybe why you kind of get a lot of different cultural differences in a good way honestly.”
The reporter, who is alleged by several outlets such as Breitbart and Yahoo to likely be the Athletic’s Owen Lewis, has not publicly confirmed he has asked the questions despite sharing that he has been in Australia covering the event.
Next up was men’s No.9-ranked Taylor Fritz from California, who on Thursday had just completed a second-round win. Fritz buried his head in his hands as he answered the question, albeit reluctantly.
“Not sure what we’re, like, specifically talking about, but there is a lot going on in the U.S., and I don’t know, I feel like whatever I say here is going to get put in a headline, and it’s going to get taken out of context,” he groaned. “So I’d really rather not do something that’s going to cause a big distraction for me in the middle of the tournament.”
On Thursday, No.9-ranked female Madison Keys from Illinois faced the reporter. Her reaction was much more progressive than her compatriots, saying, “I’m not a fan of divisiveness, and I think the beauty of the U.S. is we are a mixing pot.”
“We are very diverse, we are a home of immigrants. And I hope that we can get back to those values,” she added.
No.3-ranked woman and Florida native Coco Gauff took it a step further by bringing race politics into the mix with her response.
Gauff initially said she feels “a bit fatigued talking about it.”
She then claimed, “It is hard, also I think, being a black woman in this country and having to experience things, even online.”
She argued that “marginalized communities” are being affected, and the only thing she can do is “donate and speak out.”
Gauff then cited the fact that she posted a Martin Luther King Jr. video online recently and said, “We must keep moving forward,” as an example of her activism.
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‘Going to get someone killed’: Democratic AG shocks with talk about shooting ICE agents in ‘stand your ground’ Arizona
Republican lawmakers, the Arizona Police Association, and the Trump administration castigated Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) this week over her suggestion that it may be reasonable to shoot masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Mayes made no secret of her contempt for ICE in her interview with KPNX-TV’s Brahm Resnik, suggesting, for instance, that ICE officers are engaged in “thuggish, brutish behavior” and causing chaos, confusion, and anxiety in Minneapolis.
‘How do you know they are a peace officer?’
“It’s a combustible situation, let’s be clear about that,” said Mayes. “It’s a combustible situation being caused by ICE right now, wearing masks.”
After noting that she was “outraged and sickened” to see ICE agents outside her building and claiming that “real cops don’t wear masks,” the Democrat — who is seeking re-election — made a point of stressing that Arizona is a “stand your ground state.”
“We also have a lot of guns in Arizona,” she said with a smile.
“You know, it’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks, and we have a stand your ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you are in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.”
Resnik pumped the brakes and said, “I want to be careful with that and understand what you are saying because you know how that could be interpreted.”
RELATED: Anti-ICE radical who took credit for the invasion of Minnesota church ARRESTED by feds
(Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Image
“But it’s the fact,” said Mayes.
While Mayes clarified that you still cannot gun down peace officers in the Grand Canyon State and that she was not giving anyone license to start doing so, she appeared to give would-be killers an excuse, stating, “How do you know they’re a peace officer?”
“If there’s a situation where somebody pulls out their gun because they know Arizona is a stand your ground state, then it becomes ‘did they reasonably know that they were a peace officer?'” said Arizona’s top law enforcement officer.
When Resnik once more pressed her for clarification that she was not “telling folks you have license if you are threatened,” Mayes said, “Well,” and smirked.
“No,” she continued, “but again, if you’re being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer, how do you know?”
Republican Arizona Rep. David Schweikert noted, “Let’s not pretend this was some careful legal seminar.”
“This was the attorney general of Arizona freelancing a scenario where bullets start flying and then shrugging it off as ‘just the law.’ That is reckless on its face,” wrote Schweikert. “If your job is to enforce the law, you do not go on TV and hand out a permission structure for violence, then act surprised when people hear it as a green light. Words matter. Especially when they come from the state’s top lawyer.”
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R), who is running for state attorney general, noted, “Mayes should be fully aware of her dangerous rhetoric — and how people will construe, apply, and execute her comments. Mayes’ comments were reckless, dangerous, and disqualifying.”
The Arizona Police Association also condemned Mayes’ remarks, emphasizing that “words from elected officials matter.”
APA Executive Director Joe Clure stated that the Democrat’s framing was “deeply troubling and dangerous” especially as “law enforcement officers at every level including state, local, and federal agencies do not always wear traditional uniforms” — including members of Mayes’ own investigative teams.
“This does not diminish their legal authority or status as law enforcement,” said Clure. “Publicly speculating about how someone might legally justify shooting an ICE agent sends a dangerous and irresponsible message, particularly in an already tense and polarized environment.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the New York Post, “This is [a] direct threat calling for violence against our law enforcement officers — this kind of rhetoric is going to get someone killed.”
Blaze News has reached out the Justice Department for comment.
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‘Sparkle Beach Ken’ Is Too Kind To Gavin Newsom
The California governor correctly figures that if he stays on offense, his own dismal record will be ignored — even if that offense is odd.
