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Matthew 13:41 – “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness.”
“The laws are not to change the heart but to restrain the heartless.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
As we celebrate a truly remarkable, but flawed, man and what he stood for this week, it is even more appropriate to quote him. While he saw the rampant racism and bigotry around him, he didn’t call for the overthrow of America and dismantling of laws, but rather, he understood the heart of man.
What is going on in the Twin Cities and other major cities is the exact opposite of King’s message. I’ve seen footage from various sources of the shooting by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and some of the protesting as a result. Unfortunately, for many, the view of who was lawless, the ICE agent or the driver of the vehicle, is determined not be facts but by political persuasion.
I tried to do my best to watch the footage with a clear mind and came away thinking it was a tragedy, and one that could have been avoided, but who is at fault is not super clear. Based on the footage I saw, I think death could have been avoided.
Because of this, the violence will only be perpetuated. The woman that was killed by the ICE officer will almost certainly go down in history as a martyr for the left. It will also become a black eye on ICE, an agency mean to protect Americans. As someone who supports the rule of law, I know that an agency like ICE is desperately needed in our area. I’ll never truly understand why the left hates ICE so much.
But there are some deeper issues going on here that raise much greater concern. First, why is it acceptable to watch as our nation is invaded, our social safety net is robbed by some of those invaders, crime explodes because some of them are gang members and fentanyl flows through our streets, but when at long last the lawlessness is being addressed, Americans finally get engaged but not at the invaders but at the Americans trying to solve the problem?
Second, why do we as Americans condone such lawlessness to the point that we will impede the work of agencies designed to protect us? This may be the bigger problem. Today there are thousands of people so passionate about protecting the rights of illegal immigrants that they are braving a Minnesota winter. We can be good with the protesters doing so peacefully, but we cannot allow active efforts to get in the way and impede the work of ICE. If ICE is acting inappropriately, such as arresting a legal person or using excessive force, the agency should be called out for it, but tempers need to calm down.
If we are to have a civil society, people need to comply with orders of law enforcement. This killing, justified or not, occurred because of the extreme stress of the situation, stress that would not have occurred had people stayed out of the way of ICE, but we know there are people following them around, trying to cause trouble.
ICE is not our enemy. Agents are people who come from neighborhoods like ours. They have families at home, and most are legal Americans. Yes, I’d love ICE to have a clean mandate and clearly focus on illegals who have committed other crimes after the initial invasion. If ICE would be more transparent about its goals and tactics, this may help. However, I have a feeling that the left will still fight ICE no matter what, and the Minneapolis killing will only inflame this.
Let’s ponder for a moment ICE’s work in Minneapolis. Clearly, they need to be there. Before this become the big headline, the city was infamously in the headlines for the closed “learing” center daycares that were receiving taxpayer money. The crime ring in that city caused by non-Americans, probably many of them not legally here, focused attention on the need for ICE action.
Clearly, our nation needs ICE, and we need to let them do their work but watch them from a distance (stay out of their way) and report valid abuses of authority, not stand in the streets, get in their way or threaten them with violence.