[A] man is legally observing ICE activity in his own neighborhood. Agents walk up to his car window and ask, “Are you following us?”
The man replies, “Yeah.”
An agent immediately escalates and says, “What you are doing is called impeding federal law enforcement. It’s an 18 U.S.C. §111 charge. This is your first and only warning. If you continue to impede and follow us, you will be arrested.”
The man then correctly responds, “Yeah, but I’m not impeding you.”
Another agent jumps in and says,“You just openly admitted you were following us, so…”
And again, the man correctly explains, “I am following you. I’m not impeding you. I’m observing you.” Which is a constitutionally protected right.
The agent responds anyway, “It is impeding.”
The man replies, “No, it’s actually not.”
At that point, the agents become visibly angry that he knows the law and threaten him again, saying, “This is your one warning. If you keep doing it, we will pull you back out and arrest you.”
Just to be very clear… Following and observing law enforcement, without interference, is not a crime. Threatening arrest anyway is an abuse of power. Threatening to “pull him out” of his vehicle is a threat of unlawful force. These agents are not enforcing the law, they’re misstating it, weaponizing it, and hoping intimidation will do the rest.
They don’t understand the laws they claim to enforce. They just parrot a few buzzwords and statute numbers, and expect the public to fold. And when that doesn’t work, they threaten violence.
Because the biggest threat to an ICE agent is someone who knows their rights.
Trump said yesterday that they were going to “de-escalate a little.” I guess maybe that means they don’t plan to shoot anyone in the face or the back in the next few days. Their deeply un-American tactics appear to still be in full effect.