An illegal alien from Mexico who had been deported seven times intentionally ran down an ICE officer with his car in a Chicago suburb, hospitalizing the officer — another violent consequence of sanctuary policies that shield repeat offenders from federal enforcement.
Jose Juan Garnica-Naranjo was arrested November 10 in Chicago Heights after a targeted ICE operation turned into an assault on federal law enforcement. According to the Department of Homeland Security, officers ordered Garnica-Naranjo to shut off his engine. He refused. When they tried to remove him from the vehicle, he hit the gas — with an ICE officer still partially inside through the driver-side door. Garnica-Naranjo drove over a median, throwing the officer from the vehicle, then ran him over as he fled. The officer was hospitalized and later released.
DHS says Garnica-Naranjo had been deported from the United States seven separate times in 2013 alone, then re-entered the country illegally at an unknown date. His criminal record includes prior arrests for assault and domestic violence. Seven deportations. Assault charges. And he was still in the country, still driving, still free to put a federal officer in the hospital.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn't mince words. "This illegal alien used his vehicle to assault one of our ICE officers, hospitalizing the officer," Mullin said in a news release. "This is just the latest example of the staggering rise in anti-ICE violence, with our officers facing a more than 1,600% increase in assaults against them."
Mullin placed the blame squarely on the politicians who built the sanctuary infrastructure. "This is the result of anti-ICE rhetoric from sanctuary politicians like Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker," he said. "DHS is calling on Governor Pritzker and all other sanctuary politicians to knock off this violent rhetoric and start cooperating with ICE before any more officers are injured in the line of duty."
DHS further noted that under Pritzker, Illinois has become what the agency described as a hotbed of illegal alien crime, according to The Gateway Pundit. WJLA's reporting focused on the incident details and Mullin's statements without that additional context about the broader pattern of crimes in the state.
The numbers tell the story the establishment press doesn't want to tell. A 1,600% increase in assaults on ICE officers. A man deported seven times in a single year who walked back in and stayed long enough to rack up assault charges and ultimately use his car as a weapon against a federal agent. A governor who built his political brand on refusing to cooperate with the very officers now getting dragged through the streets.
The question isn't whether sanctuary policies have consequences. An ICE officer lying in a hospital bed answered that. The question is how many more officers have to pay the price before the political class is forced to answer for it.
