Protestors and city employees are working together to obstruct ICE. It’s time to arrest them.

It’s one thing to protest. It’s another to obstruct justice. And that’s exactly what people in Chicago were looking to do this weekend.

Dozens of volunteers seeking to disrupt federal deportation raids fanned out across Albany Park Sunday morning.

“The main thing we want to achieve is extreme delay,” said Anthony Joel Quezada, who works for Chicago Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa.

You heard that right – actual Chicago city employees have joined pro-illegal immigration supporters in protesting and interfering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as they carry out deportation arrests in several major cities.

“Armed with cell phone cameras and teamed in pairs of two, the volunteers set out on foot and on bike to look for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids or signs of an impending raid, such as unmarked law enforcement vehicles staging outside a home. As of early Sunday afternoon, there was no evidence the highly anticipated raids had begun.”

Let’s back up a few notches and put this in perspective. United States citizens, and more importantly, employees of cities, are seeking to interfere with and obstruct justice by contacting ICE agents as they carry out deportation raids. This is the latest in a long line of sanctuary city actions aimed at curbing immigration enforcement.

Many say these attitudes of either pro- or anti-undocumented immigration fall along party lines, and that appears to be accurate – Democrats want open borders, free medical care for immigrants not here legally, free school, driver’s licenses, and other benefits, while Republicans want the border to be strong and enforced, including “interior enforcement” or the follow-up actions designed to detain and deport those who stay in the country and break federal law.

Many, many local, state, and federal politicians and city leaders have boldly announced that they will interfere with enforcement efforts, and the extreme of these efforts include statements by several of our Congressional members giving tips on how to avoid being departed and even giving pointers on how to deal with ICE and avoid capture.

The rhetorical question begs to be answered – if police officers, deputies, federal agents, and other law enforcement personnel are vilified when doing their jobs, and flogged in the proverbial public square at the slightest deviation from their sworn oaths, why are politicians allowed to aid those breaking federal law – to the point of giving evasion instructions or physically interfering with enforcement officers?

Last week, Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Cory Booker traveled to Texas, crossed into Mexico, and then escorted several people across the US border. He helped them illegally cross into our country.

It’s an easy assumption that this is all just a political shell game designed to minimalize the president’s successes in office, given that immigration was one of his biggest campaign issues.

As a matter of fact, the people targeted in these recent deportation raids have been through the formal process, got their day in court, were determined to have criminal records, and were ordered by a judge to be deported – they have refused to comply with the court orders, and were given notifications in February 2019.

The people who are interfering with ICE and giving pointers on escape and evasion are helping criminals hide from court orders. Can you imagine if we did the same for US citizens who were rapists, murderers, and other convicted felons? Our citizens would be swept up by warrant teams and their “helpers” would be jailed for aiding and abetting. For whatever reason, it’s different for immigrants not here legally.

Politics for sure – fake outrage – after all, that statistics don’t lie: According to Politico, President Trump has (ordered) deported an average of 16,900 people per month. That figure is dwarfed by even the lowest month under President Obama, which was more than 20,000 people. Obama’s highest month exceeded 34,000.

In fact, President Obama deported more people than any president in history – according to research by ABC News, between 2009 and 2015, the Obama administration removed more than 2.5 million people through immigration orders, which doesn’t include the number of people who “self-deported” or were turned away and/or returned to their home country at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Add an additional 260,000 deportations for 2016. 2.75 million deported, approximately.

Ironically, there were no protests against the Obama administration concerning deportations and no direct, physical interference by citizens and city employees.

For reference, former President George W. Bush deported just over 2 million people in his 8 years in office. Bill Clinton deported a similar number.

Using President Trump’s average deportations per month as a reference, approximately 811,000 people will have been deported at the end of his 4-year term. Even if re-elected and that number doubles to 1.6 million in 8 years, that is still far below the numbers produced by other recent presidents.

This is purely political and very dangerous. Simply put, Democrats what open borders and want to lure migrants with offers of free stuff, and then they’ll keep them voting Democrat for years. That sounds eerily familiar and reminds me of Lyndon Johnson in 1968. He had a similar plan and for the same reason.

Some are calling out the president, and their claims are dripping with irony.

According to USA Today, Camila Alvarez, a managing attorney for the Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles, said the day proved “anxiety-inducing” for the community.

“It’s so clear that this is a political tool for the current administration,” Alvarez said. “These raid announcements have been designed to instill fear in the immigrant community.”

Calling these deportations a “political tool” is ironic when the same people making that claim are organizing interference missions that only serve to obstruct the president’s agenda and directly conflict with federal law.

Back to Chicago, their mission and message is clear:

“If we delay them an hour or two, that’s an hour or two we’ve given for the next person who’s being targeted,” said Ramirez-Rosa.

The anti-raid brigade was organized by Alderman Ramirez-Rosa and fellow newly-elected Democratic Socialist Alderman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez.

Mitch Dudek additionally writes:

“Last month, before announced raids that were never actually carried out, both aldermen organized a door-knocking campaign to let people know their rights should ICE agents end up at their home.”

Call me naïve, but I always thought that any politician’s first and most important job was to keep our citizens safe. This bewildering process does just the opposite.