Fair warning to anyone who thinks they will stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from taking illegals, particularly those with rap sheets, into custody: Interfere and you’ll be prosecuted. ICE is not playing around here.
The latest story of leftist busybodies interfering with the long arm of the law comes from Charlottesville, Virginia, home to the University of Virginia and more than its fair share of lefty activists. Last Tuesday, ICE agents arrived at the Albemarle County Courthouse to take into custody two illegals, one from Mexico and the other from Honduras, who were leaving court after being charged with various misdemeanor crimes.
Two extremely annoying busybodies—masked up, of course, and sporting the latest in campus rage chic—stepped in, repeatedly putting themselves in between the perps and the ICE officers, clearly in an effort to prevent the officers from doing their job. Put a pin in the topic of activists wearing masks; we’ll get back to that in a minute.
Here are the busybodies in all their glory:
As is abundantly clear from the video, the women purposely put their bodies between the perps and the ICE agents, despite repeated warnings from one of the officers to not touch him or impede in the arrests of the two illegals. The duo were also warned that their interference was a crime, but they continued to meddle in the arrests and demanded to know if the agents had a warrant for the arrests.
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Albemarle County Sheriff Chan Bryant, whose agency oversees security at the courthouse, confirmed that the ICE agents involved did show their badges and the appropriate paperwork to the bailiffs on site. The agents, of course, were under no obligation to provide that information to the meddlers. ICE is now saying that they will be pursuing criminal charges against the two interfering activists, and are pushing back at the efforts of Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley to investigate what he calls the “courthouse raid.”
“It is shameful,” wrote an ICE spokesman who declined to be named in a Saturday morning statement, “that the Commonwealth Attorney, a sworn officer of the court and fellow law enforcement officer, has decided to prioritize politics over public safety — placing a criminal’s wellbeing above that of the brave women and men in law enforcement, whom the Commonwealth Attorney took an oath to support.”
Surprise, surprise—Jim Hingeley is funded by George Soros. Hingeley is apparently also a Chris Van Hollen clone, bragging that he’s confident that “his constituents” appreciate his efforts to thwart ICE from taking illegals into custody.
Let’s take a look at the Jim Hingeley “constituents” in question here:
- Pablo Aparicio Marcelino, a Mexican national who has been charged more than once with DUI.
- Teodoro Dominguez-Rodriguez, a Honduran citizen charged with leaving the scene of a traffic accident.
In short, Commonwealth’s Attorney Hingeley places the politics of illegal immigration over the safety of his actual constituents.
Despite attempts by local media to frame this as “two bystanders” who were “just asking questions” of the ICE officials, this seems to be the work of a group called “UVA Dissenters.” Social media accounts connected to the group apparently posted photos of the agents involved in the arrests and descriptions of their vehicles, down to the license plate numbers.
On the subject of masks: it’s (mostly) illegal to wear them when involved in political protests. Virginia Code § 18.2-422 holds that it is unlawful for anyone over the age of 16 to wear a mask with the intent of concealing his or her identity; there are certain exceptions, but hiding your identity when involved in political protests is not one of them.
Pablo Aparicio Marcelino and Teodoro Dominguez-Rodriguez are currently being held at the Farmville Detention Center pending repatriation back to their respective homelands.
Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left’s lies, new legislation wasn’t needed to secure our border, just a new president.
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