The Washington Post has published an article, titled “County By County, ICE Faces a Growing Backlash,” fawning over communities that have decided not to aid U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in apprehending criminal aliens. As the Post describes it, vocal protesters have begun pressuring local sheriffs to refuse ICE requests to hold criminal aliens until the federal government can take them into custody. They have also insisted that sheriffs refuse to rent detention bed space to ICE.
The Post, characterizes this as “a furious backlash in local communities across the country,” against Trump administration immigration policies. But what the Post has characterized as a “furious backlash” would be more accurately described as the shrill cries of a small number of vocal activists who don’t reflect the true consensus of the communities where they are protesting. It also smacks of the guilty whining about facing the consequences of their actions. Even though the mainstream media prefers to refer to them as “immigrants,” many of the leaders of the movement to abolish ICE are illegal aliens.
In fact, the Post quotes Ingris Moran, the leader of what is described as an “immigrant advocacy group” in Alexandria, Va., who admits as much. Ms. Moran claims that she began anti-ICE protests because “it became increasingly hard to reconcile a post-election statement the city issued about respecting undocumented immigrants with its long-standing agreements with ICE.” (Ms. Moran’s current immigration status is never mentioned and the Post never mentions that lawfully present aliens who aren’t breaking any criminal laws have nothing to fear from ICE.)
Of course, Ms. Moran presumes that deporting illegal aliens is a form of disrespect. That is rather ironic, since the reason for deporting those in the United States without authorization is their blatant disrespect for both the rule of law and American sovereignty. She makes no attempt to explain exactly what moral precept requires U.S. citizens to tolerate the presence of alien lawbreakers at the expense of their own public safety interests.
One need only change the context, however, and the absurdity of the protesters’ position becomes obvious. If shoplifters and burglars began mass protests calling for a loosening of the laws regarding theft, most mainstream media outlets would run articles discussing the ridiculousness of their demands. But when it comes to immigration, the Post, and other well-known papers have taken to venerating the law-breakers and demonizing those attempting to protect the public. And that renders them guilty of ice-cold hypocrisy.
That approach isn’t particularly surprising from a media that has staked out a vehemently, irrationally anti-Trump position on anything immigration-related. What is shocking is that so many local sheriffs are knuckling under to protesters who couldn’t care less about public safety. Declining immigration detainers and refusing to rent detention beds to ICE just ensures that alien criminals are returned to American communities where they’re free to offend again. And allowing that to happen flies in the face of American sheriffs’ obligations to protect the communities they serve. Yet another case of ice-cold hypocrisy.
How many Kate Steinles and Mollie Tibbets need to die before sheriffs start choosing safety and sanity over sucking up to misguided political pressure groups?