Left-wing activists are mobilizing to block a new ICE facility at St. Elizabeths in Washington, D.C., fighting the very border enforcement infrastructure ordinary Americans are demanding.
While the southern border remains a disaster, the crowd that complains about chaos is now actively preventing the Department of Homeland Security from building the infrastructure needed to enforce the law. The question of who is funding and organizing this obstruction remains unanswered, as federal agencies and local officials refuse to provide details.
WTOP reported that protesters rallied Saturday at the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. avenues in Southeast D.C. to oppose a possible ICE facility on the St. Elizabeths campus. Advisory Neighborhood Commission Commissioner Salim Adofo told the crowd that a 2023 Biden administration press release scheduled the facility to be built, and claimed the community has received no information since saying it would not be. The General Services Administration says the redevelopment includes a high-security DHS campus designed to unify operations, with Clark Construction slated to finish by 2027. When pressed for updates, DHS, the GSA, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton all stonewalled WTOP.
While D.C. activists fight to keep ICE from getting a home base, the agency's on-the-ground operations are giving critics all the ammunition they need.
In Maine, an ICE officer connected to the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero had previously claimed in court that he suffered lingering "cognitive deficits" from a 2021 head injury, according to KRDO. David Brouillette, 37, sued the Maine Community College System over a steel I-beam falling on his head, alleging he was "significantly impaired in his activities and in his daily living." Yet ICE hired him just over two years later. Two of Brouillette's ex-wives identified him as the shooter and detailed a history of domestic violence, including a judge ordering him to temporarily relinquish firearms in 2019. DHS claims the officer used deadly force because he was "fearing for public safety."
Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, ICE agents botched an arrest so badly they left an elderly man literally handcuffed in an airport terminal. Live 5 News reported that on July 13, ICE agents tried to detain 57-year-old Phu Nguyen at Harry Reid International Airport. When a bystander started recording, the plainclothes agents walked away, leaving Nguyen with a single cuff on his arm. A uniformed TSA officer had to step in. Local police found no outstanding warrants and removed the cuff. ICE later posted on X that Nguyen was apprehended at LAX the next day for allegedly overstaying his visa. Naturally, the Nevada Latino Legislative Caucus is now demanding investigations.
The left blocks the facilities, the feds botch the field operations, and the border remains wide open. Until someone follows the money behind the D.C. obstruction and demands accountability for ICE's hiring and tactics, the American people lose on both fronts.
