Interim United States Attorney Bill Essayli of the Central District of California vowed Wednesday to prosecute anyone who assaulted United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Democratic Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles showed up at a location where ICE was carrying out an operation Monday, demanding that the agents leave the vicinity, echoing previous demands from some Democrats that the agency cease its operations in the Los Angeles area as a way to “restore order” in the city after riots broke out following an ICE operation in June. Essayli told “Fox and Friends” guest co-host Griff Jenkins that Bass should have “changed the law” while she was in Congress. (RELATED: ‘Just Unacceptable’: Border Patrol Chief Accuses Left Of Inciting Attacks)
“Let me be very clear what’s going on here,” Essayli told Jenkins. “You have the politicians in California are being openly hostile to the federal government. We are doing our job. We are enforcing federal immigration laws as written by Congress. If Karen Bass didn’t like the law, she should have changed it when she was in Congress.”
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“But instead, what she’s doing is she’s signaling to the public that it’s okay to stand up stand up to federal agents to obstruct them, to impede them and some cases, to attack them,” Essayli continued. “This is why the military’s here. It is so critical we have the military protecting our agents. And to Ms. Bass, we will not be intimidated, we will not be deterred from accomplishing our mission.”
Since Friday, gunmen attacked a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas, and an ICE office in Alvarado, Texas.
“When you look at the number of assaults just that my office here at the U.S. Attorney’s office has charged, it’s exploded,” Essayli said. “Almost every day, we are arresting people for assaulting our agents, damaging our vehicles, getting in our way. And then you saw over the weekend in Texas, you have ICE officers and federal agents get ambushed.”
“Officers were shot and you saw 10 people be arrested and indicted by the federal government there. They are escalating their tactics. What they are doing is not working,” Essayli continued. “And so my concern is things are going to escalate and people are going to get hurt. But I want to be very clear. If anybody gets in our way, if anybody touches our officers, you will be arrested, and you will be charged and you will go to federal prison. You can take that to the bank.”
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