* Last August, Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey said he was generally opposed to ICE and other police officers wearing masks…
I think that’s concerning. I think there needs to be a lot more transparency. I also understand in certain aspects of law enforcement where identities need to be protected. I get that, but as a whole, you know, with police officers, for whatever reason. I don’t see that where I’m at. I see that on I see that, you know, on social media. […]
As governor of Illinois, there would be no one wearing masks.
* When asked today about an apparent ICE agent who shot a woman to death in Minnesota this week, Bailey referenced the recent tragic deaths of his close family members in a helicopter crash..
You know what? This last three months has completely opened my eyes up. I’ve never had to experience death as I have so I can say that more now more than ever, it breaks my heart when anyone loses their life.
But…
None of this should be happening if state government would be upholding the law. If we were doing this in Illinois, if we were they were doing it in Minnesota, federal government would have no need to be there. This should have been taken care of, and since it wasn’t, now, we’ve escalated to the point that we’re at, I’m not familiar at all with the details of that, so a life was lost and it shouldn’t have been lost.
* Gov. Pritzker was asked today about what went wrong with the shooting…
I wish I could say it was explicable, except to say that it is clear that there are ICE officers, ICE agents and CBP, and I’m not sure which one of them was responsible here. In fact, they won’t reveal who the officer was. But anybody looking at the video can see that this person didn’t follow any what would be normal policies for law enforcement. It’s clear that this woman who was killed, this mother who was killed, was moving very slowly, not attempting to go after anybody. There were somebody - if she really was, as the President has implied, a domestic terrorist of some sort - there were things that she could have done with people that were standing there. Didn’t do any of those things. And it’s clear that person that they’re saying was in danger was not actually standing in front of when she was moving and was not in danger.
Meanwhile, there are policies and procedures that normally law enforcement follow and that ICE, and we’ve seen it, we know before Minnesota because we’ve lived that they don’t follow and they’re clearly not trained. They’re hiring a whole bunch of new people. They don’t seem to care a whit about whether these people are prepared for a job like this, are psychologically prepared, or get the kind of training.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 12:50 pm:
“… if state government would be upholding the law.”
Groan. Except for people paying cash, the Feds already know who is employing people that are “undocumented” / “illegal” … . It would be more cost effective to arrest employers for tax fraud (correct withholding amounts using incorrect SSN is illegal).
https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-05-154-highlights.pdf
- Jocko - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:01 pm:
==federal government would have no need to be there.==
So why did the feds keep changing their rationale for Operation Midway Blitz?
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:15 pm:
“None of this should be happening if state government would be upholding the law.”
Immigration enforcement is a federal issue. It’s so sad when schmucks like me know more about the constitution than people running for governor.
- H-W - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:18 pm:
De-escalation. Officers have a legal and moral obligation to de-escalate.
There was no Federal Officer in question had plenty of time to de-escalate from the time he exited his vehicle. The woman he killed was not a target of the operation, but a protestor as best I can tell.
The officer should have backed away to de-escalate. Instead he pulled his weapon and escalated a non-dangerous situation.
Officers who cannot tell the difference should not be allowed to serve and protect, much less hung down with the willingness to kill .
- H-W - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:25 pm:
Sorry for the typos.
There was no” should be “The.”
“Much less hung down with the willingness to kill” should be deleted.
- clec dcn - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:29 pm:
I see the video quite differently the JB. The horrible loss of a human life that could have been avoided.
- Remember the Alamo II - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:32 pm:
=== None of this should be happening if state government would be upholding the law. ===
I thought these ICE raids were put into place to enforce federal immigration law. The states have nothing to do with enforcing immigration law.
- Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:34 pm:
==…it breaks my heart when anyone loses their life.==
I feel for Bailey. I sincerely do. Republicans instinctively follow the party talking points, but the depth of this tragedy may have given him the empathy that this woman was not the villain the President has portrayed her as.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:36 pm:
==if state government would be upholding the law==
It’s not the job of the state to enforce federal laws.
- Thomas - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:39 pm:
==== an apparent ICE agent====
He was an ICE agent. Do better.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:49 pm:
===Do better===
I thought so too, but the governor said they weren’t sure.
- ArchPundit - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:49 pm:
–I thought these ICE raids were put into place to enforce federal immigration law. T
The justification is moving towards ICE is now stopping fraud and both the VP and WH Spokesperson have said they are going door to door to do that. To state the obvious, DHS has no jurisdiction in government fraud investigations of social programs.
- ArchPundit - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 1:51 pm:
–I thought so too, but the governor said they weren’t sure.
I believe it has just been confirmed by the Star Tribune that he is an ICE agent. The confusion comes from the task forces including CBP agents on assignment to ICE.
- Juice - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 3:03 pm:
It would be really nice if members of the GOP could stick to some semblance of reality when it comes to immigration enforcement. In Minnesota, about 15.7% of the immigrant population is undocumented.
Compare that to other Midwestern Republican led states like Indiana (27%) or Iowa (33.3%) or their neighbor South Dakota (28.5%) and then ask which states are not “doing their job” (although on immigration I agree with others that states do not have a job to do.)
As a reference point, in Illinois the number is around 22.9%.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 4:07 pm:
@Juice- Kudos on some excellent data research. You are really on point. I absolutely appreciate the info.
The data you shared once again demonstrates the vindictive and pure political nature of the ICE/CBP “enforcement” (now code or terrorizing) activities.
I am shocked that Noem’s home state would have such a high percentage. (Not really, but fun to play the pretend outrage game sometimes)
- Dotnonymous x - Thursday, Jan 8, 26 @ 5:35 pm:
‘All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.’
~George Orwell