Less than five months after the chaotic and deadly anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, a well-funded, well-organized, disruptive political movement is looking for more scalps.
Anti-ICE blockades and violence occur regularly in Democrat-led “sanctuary cities”.
In this case, it’s Newark, New Jersey.
The plum target of angry riots this past week is Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed private facility where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement oversees one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country.
The Delaney Hall inmates are “the worst illegal aliens of all time,” the Department of Homeland Security said — but that didn’t matter to the hundreds of protesters who gathered to pelt uniformed ICE officers and block their departure.
Protesters sprayed chemical weapons at police during the evening clashes, and several protesters were arrested for assault.
Another was caught on video threatening to kill an ICE officer and his family: “Your kids, your wife — they’re all dead,” he shouted.
Groups of masked, keffiyeh-wearing thugs shouted vicious slogans – such as “Every policeman, every fed, shoot themselves in the head” – in the faces of the agents.
And elected officials oppress them.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who joined the angry crowd on Monday, called ICE the “secret police” and President Donald Trump’s “people army.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) said they represent “the lawlessness of the Trump administration.”
The sad scenes reminded me of a sad story my father, a 1960 West Point graduate and US Army officer, reluctantly shared with me when I was a child.
When he returned home from his tour of Vietnam in late 1967, my father’s plane from Saigon landed in Guam before its final leg at Los Angeles International Airport.
Between Guam and LAX, the soldiers — a mix of soldiers and marines, officers and enlisted — received orders to ditch their khaki uniforms and paraphernalia and wear civilian clothes.
The brass hoped that a change of costume would help them avoid the crowds of angry protesters who had gathered at the airport, ready to scream and throw human excrement at these men, these Americans, who had just served a year in hell.
The protesters were not fooled – the villagers could not hide their close-cropped and military hair.
Armed with unrepentant human waste and a handful, they pass through the barricades to attack the incoming soldiers.
This was my “father’s welcome” home.
But the protesters were more than foolish to think that those young men were in charge of American policy in Vietnam.
They were not architects; they were musical instruments.
Long before war-related PTSD and emotional scars were accepted as legal, these men were subjected to the worst form of rehabilitative abuse in society.
No amount of apologies or promises to “fix this” can fix what you have endured.
Today, the left is making the exact same mistake, making US immigration enforcement officials the targets of their unfair criticism.
How does history repeat itself – not just at shows, but in our local communities?
Story: In March my wife, who works as a DHS attorney, ran for a part-time, non-participating board seat in the Upstate New York area where we live.
A number of residents “offended” his work on social media and vocally opposed his appointment on that basis.
They said he was unfit for office because of his involvement with the legal fate of ICE detainees.
A resident of a local coffee shop advised me that his association with such an abominable institution was merely “a scam.”
Our family was forced to switch cars every day to fight the protesters who came to his office: Yes, we really feared for his safety and that of other employees.
This is wrong – and deeply un-American.
Voters in our wonderful neighborhood, the dormitory community of West Point, saw this disruption and elected him despite the nomination.
However the logical error “blaming the user for the policy” remains green.
In a healthy republic, citizens disagree strongly about policy – but they must separate those disagreements, no matter how moral or political, from the public servants tasked with enforcing our laws.
Coming to grips with the mistreatment of Vietnam veterans took time.
The brave men and women of ICE deserve the same national apology.
James A. Gagliano is a retired FBI Special Agent in Charge and Fox News contributor.
