For months now, anti-ICE activists have been waging a campaign of protest and harassment against the enforcement of federal immigration laws. One key element of this pressure campaign is finding sympathetic and like-minded local elected officials to agendize “bans” on ICE agents wearing face coverings while carrying out arrests.
At the same time, anti-ICE activists have been actively trying to “doxx” – publicly reveal agents identities and home addresses in order subject them to harassment.These radical networks also work to publicize which hotels ICE agents are staying at in order to harass them into checking out.
ICE agents have been wearing masks to protect themselves and their families from these tactics – a reasonable precaution given recent armed ambush attacks by radical activists against ICE agents.
Recently, two councilmembers in the City of Orange – Arianna Barrios and Ana Gutierrez – brought forward one of these shambolic resolutions to ban ICE agents from wearing face coverings. The resolution purported to “require” all federal agents operating in Orange to “wear clearly visible identification” and “refrain from utilizing disguises or face coverings of any kind” and “present proper identification upon request.”
Naturally, this brought a large contingent of progressive activists to the council chambers in this conservative city – among them a young radical activist who gave his name only as “Alexis.”
Alexis took to the podium, brimming with righteous anger and indignation, identifying himself as president of something called “Pueblo Unido.” He claimed enforcement of immigration laws was killing people and praised Barrios and Gutierrez for “showing up and standing up and speaking out.”
He then turned his ire on Councilman Jon Dumitru, a conservative Republican, accusing him of “dehumanizing” protestors.
Earlier in July, while warning about the dangers of escalating anti-ICE rioting, Dumitru clumsily alluded to firehoses being used against protestors in the 1960s. He later apologized.
“Councilman Dumitru, your comment about water hosing was not only disturbing, it was dehumanizing,” Alexis stridently declared.
Ironically, just two weeks earlier, Alexis was engaged in his own disturbing display of dehumanizing others when he and a crowd of radicals raucously protested just outside Moreno’s Restaurant, an iconic, family-run Mexican restaurant in the city’s El Modena neighborhood. The small but unruly mob mistakenly believed the restaurant was connected to an ICE apprehension a few days earlier, and were trying to disrupt its popular Taco Tuesday. Alexis and his Mexican flag-waving comrades – many of whom wore masks to conceal their identities – screamed at customers through bullhorns, gave them middle fingers, played a police siren and generally did their best to make life miserable for locals trying to enjoy Taco Tuesday.
As the evening progressed, Alexis and the other protestors tactics became increasingly vicious, shouting obscenities at patrons and blocking the driveways.
Alexis was captured on video screaming through a bullhorn at some older women as they left Moreno’s.
“Fuck you, bitch! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you up the ass, bitch! You gonna die!” Alexis shouts through a bullhorn.
By the standards of normal people, Alexis’ antics would fairly be considered disturbing, and wishing death upon someone is definitely dehumanizing.
None of that seemed to cross Alexis’ mind two weeks later when he excoriated as “dehumanizing” an ill-considered but non-malicious comment by Councilman Dumitru. The stated mission of the group Alexis leads is “envisioning a world rooted in love, unity, and joy” but his vicious verbal assaults on innocent Moreno’s patrons were contrary to love, unity and joy.
Not to mention the irony of Alexis and other progressive activists urging the Orange City Council to forbid ICE agents from wearing masks during enforcement operations while reserving their right to wear masks to shield themselves from legal consequences.
Deepening the hypocrisy is young Alexis’ demand that ICE agents publicly identify themselves while he refuses to publicly give more than his first name – even the “Pueblo Unido” website refers to him only as “Alexis.”
A majority of the public may not like aspects of aggressive ICE enforcement like targeting dayworkers or farm workers. But what they like even less are angry, self-righteous young radicals who demand decency and respect that they refuse to accord others. Continuance of these tactics will continue to alienate the mainstream public opinion upon which durable policy is built.
