Salem Radio Network host Hugh Hewitt told “America’s Newsroom” co-host Bill Hemmer that mayors and governors resisting immigration enforcement were ignoring the Constitution.
The mayors of Portland, Oregon and Minneapolis, Minnesota, demanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cease operations in their cities after federal officers fired shots when they were reportedly targeted in vehicle ramming attacks. Hemmer noted that Fox News Senior Analyst Brit Hume compared the anti-ICE efforts to resistance to the Civil Rights movement, prompting Hewitt to explain the constitutional provisions in play.
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“This is federalism. There is a federal government with a federal law enforcement arm that enforces federal laws in the Constitution. State and local officials do not get a say in that,” Hewitt said. “We decisively came to that conclusion in the Civil War in 1865 when the South surrendered. There is no secondary choice for the states and local governments to say, ‘We get to move in with Trump.’ There is a supremacy clause in the Constitution that says the federal government is supreme.”
ICE surged into the Minneapolis area following revelations of welfare fraud in Minnesota, prompting President Donald Trump to announce in November that he would end “Temporary Protected Status” for Somalis in Minneapolis in response to the allegations. In Portland, Oregon, violent protesters have reportedly attacked conservative journalists covering the riots and planned to use lasers against aircraft used by federal law enforcement agencies.
“I haven’t seen anything like this, anything like this, except recently on the hard left of the Democratic Party, in the words of Mayor Frey and Mayor Mamdani, in the actions of Governor Walz and Governor Newsom, where they’re attempting to undermine the rule of law,” Hewitt said. “I think it is perilous for the people who live in their states and their cities that their governments are attempting to separate themselves from the federal government, which is supreme on certain matters, like the border, like immigration and customs.”
Resistance to ICE’s enforcement operations has been violent at times. In Illinois and California, ICE agents were fired on while carrying out operations, while ICE agents have reportedly been attacked by assailants who used cars to ram vehicles in the Chicago area. The agent who fatally shot a woman who apparently tried to run him over was reportedly dragged by a vehicle in June.
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