What do Anti-ICE Protesters really stand for?
Someone really needs to ask the media this question. What do the anti-ICE protesters stand for? The media covers these protesters and gives airtime to their complaints but no one defines what are the goals or underlying principles these individuals believe.
Let's look at some of the people ICE has arrested.
- Hernan Cortes-Valencia is an illegal alien arrested by ICE. He was convicted of sexual assault against a child, sexual assault-carnal abuse, and four DUIs. Mr. Cortes-Valencia was ordered removed on December 1, 2016, so he had his due process.
- Sriudorn Phaivan was convicted of strongarm sodomy of a boy and a girl, nine counts of larceny, four counts of fraud, vehicle theft, two counts of drug possession, possession and receiving of stolen property, burglary and check forgery, and that's just a summary. He has a final removal order from March 8, 2018.
- Gabriel Figueroa Gama was removed from the US in 2002 and came back. After coming back he was convicted of homicide, battery, assault and amphetamine possession.
On January 7, 2026, Renee Good was shot by an ICE agent defending himself. Did she die trying to get ICE to release those individuals back to the streets of Minnesota? It's harsh to put it that way but it needs to be asked. The vast majority of people arrested by ICE are individuals like those three. By impeding ICE, the only people benefitting from the action of the anti-ICE activists are people like the rapists and murdered I named above. Is that really their goal?
Let's be fair and suggest protecting rapists and murderers is not the real goal of the anti-ICE "warriors." I believe I've heard more comments about not wanting ICE in their communities, workplaces, schools or churches. Clearly, whoever is training the anti-ICE warriors and protesters are giving them bad information because there is a much better way to achieve their goal - get politicians to repeal the sanctuary laws that prevent police and correctional officials from cooperating with ICE.
Tom Homan, the Trump Administration's Border Czar, has said on many public occasions ICE would prefer to pick up people like the three I cited either at police stations or prisons. Repealing sanctuary laws and policies would enable this.
- Person X is arrested or about to be released from prison after their term is up. ICE submits a detainer request.
- The State or local law enforcement holds Person X at the jail or prison.
- ICE shows up and a secure transfer takes place.
The reason sanctuary laws were enacted originally was to ensure illegal immigrants felt safe seeking medical help or going to police to report crimes without fear of being arrested and deported. Surely there must be a way to reach an agreement with ICE to not make arrests in those hospitals and to only arrest people at police stations for whom there is a detainer.
In fact, sanctuary policies make illegal immigrants who have not committed a crime more exposed to ICE, not less. Rather than ICE just going to jails and prisons to pick up the people they target, as mentioned above, ICE goes into the community, which means persons found with the criminal targeted will get picked up too.
There is no logic in the actions of the people protesting ICE. The people protesting are a combination of professional protesters who go where they told, well-meaning but misled suburban moms like Renee Good who bought into the hateful rhetoric spewed by Democrats and the media, and violent radicals who act like little children by breaking things, including people, if they don't get what they want.
It's more than sad, it's tragic because now someone else has lost their life - we can't forget the immigrant killed by a shooter in Texas who was trying to hit ICE agents. All of this could have been avoided had reason prevailed and a compromise - either the one I suggested or another - been found to let ICE do their jobs.
Comments