Politicians Join Open-Borders Protesters, Get Arrested
By David Jaroslav | July 6, 2018
The recent media hysteria over “family separation” at the U.S. border, and the protests that in many places have called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have provided great platforms for local open-borders politicians to grandstand, virtue-signal, and raise their profiles in support of illegal aliens. In some cases, they evidently believe the best way to accomplish that is to break the law themselves and get arrested.
On June 29, Minnesota State Senator Patricia Torres Ray (D-Minneapolis) was arrested protesting General Dynamics for its tenuous connections to immigration enforcement: several of the protesters locked themselves in cages in front of the company’s offices and were told to disperse prior to being arrested for trespassing. Probably not coincidentally, Torres Ray is running to replace Congressman and Democratic National Committee Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison, who proudly wore a T-shirt proclaiming “I don’t believe in borders” and is now seeking to become Minnesota’s next Attorney General.
Less than a week later, on July 2, Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Bonin (D-District 11) was arrested with 17 other protesters for blocking the entrance to ICE’s local detention center. Before being arrested, Bonin took the opportunity to rant to the media about “trauma” and “internment camps,” and to call President Trump “evil” and “the kidnapper-in-chief.”
These aren’t the first times state and local politicians have been arrested during immigration-related protests, though with two in less than a week the practice might be getting more common. On March 5, Arizona State Representative Isela Blanc (D-Tempe) was arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police in Washington, DC, for blocking the street with fellow protestors supporting “DACA,” while back in January, New York City Council members Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) and Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan) were arrested for blocking the path of an ambulance while protesting ICE’s arrest of an illegal-alien “activist.” In that case, New York City Council speaker, Corey D. Johnson may have best expressed the upside-down mentality of the lawbreaking politicians when he “accused NYPD officers and US federal law enforcement agents of acting violently during the protest action” for simply arresting people who had committed crimes.
The media doesn’t appear curious to follow up on what actually happens with these cases after arrest, even though the crimes may have posed real dangers. But state and local officials who get arrested must not be looking at the prospect of serious penalties from friendly local prosecutors, or it’d probably get reported on. So they’re able to look like courageous heroes in their own minds and those of their supporters without serious consequences, which is much like how they themselves treat illegal aliens.
By contrast, elected officials who actually support the rule of law don’t ever appear to break the law and get arrested in protests supporting their position. Yet in the Orwellian view of the lawbreakers, as epitomized by the New York City Council Speaker’s statements, supporting enforcing the law is itself “violence,” while breaking it is apparently some kind of moral imperative. This dangerous attitude would lead ultimately to anarchy and the total breakdown of a self-governing republic.