Robert Hornak
Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who has previously served as the Deputy Director of the Republican Assembly Leader’s NYC office and as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail. com and @roberthornak on X.
The opposition to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) by some of the more radical factions in NYC is coming to a head, with protestors increasingly becoming violent while believing that they are allowed to do so because they believe their cause is just.
It isn’t.
First, as we need to keep remindng too many of our friends on the left, violence to express your political views is never, ever, an accept- able form of political engagement. Something has infected a large segment of our population, making them think that American democracy, when it doesn’t go your way, can be equally settled by violent protests.
These were the same people who just a few years ago were on their high horse telling everyone that even raising questions about fraud in the 2020 election was to undermine democracy. Now they have blown right past the verbal part aspect of disagreement and gone straight to using force to get what they want.
Things got out of hand on Saturday, the day after mayor-elect Mamdani met with President Trump at the White House, when anti-ICE agitators were given a heads up about an ICE enforcement action that was being staged out of a garage on Centre Street in lower Manhattan. Around 150 rabid protestors were reported to have been quickly dispatched to the location and brgan to block the street, sidewalk, and exit of the garage, both with their bodies and large objects they could drag from the immediate area, including cement planters.
In response, ICE did what they should have done and called the NYPD to handle this matter, to deal with these protestors trying to forcibly block these ICE agents from doing their job. And the NYPD did what they needed to do, deal with these violent protestors and not allow them to get away with using force to express their political views.
Of course, the protestors did not like the NYPD intervening and opening up the street for the ICE agents to move freely and do their job. And this is where the situation really began to deteriorate. The protestors began throwing objects at the ICE vehicles as exited the garage as well as at NYPD officers trying to maintain control over the situation. Police arrested a number of the protestors, using pepper spray to control the crowd and throwing some to the ground while taking them into custody.
Then, the real craziness began. On Sunday local politicians, who should know better, held a rally to condemn the NYPD for doing their job and maintaining order, with some even making the case that the NYPD was in violation of city law.
Comptroller Brad Lander set the tone, stating, “When you see SRG agents clearing the street, clearing the way for trucks, let’s be clear, the words for that are facilitating ICE deportations. That is a violation of New York City sanctuary law, and it’s not tolerable. It is not the job of the NYPD to facilitate the deportations of our neighbors.”
The NYPD was not involved, in any way, with the ICE enforcement. They were only there to keep order and prevent protestors from engaging in violent behavior. The NYPD was clear in their statement about that. But, additionally, ICE is not deporting our “neighbors” but alternatively people who entered this country illegally and are eligible for deportation. Period.
The fact of the matter is that Biden and the Democrats got away with an egregious violation of US law, for years allowing an unchecked flood of illegal immigration into this country, while ignoring existing legal deportation orders. But there will be no prosecution for this violation, and if the Democrats have their way, no correction at all. And, while they claim to support the objective of deporting criminal illegals, they have done everything possible to obstruct that as well.
The only redress and the only way to try to prevent future administrations from doing the same thing again, is to aggressively and un- apologetically deport as many illegals as ICE is able to and hopefully negate whatever the left was hoping to achieve by ignoring US immigration laws and procedures. This is the only way to level the playing field.
