Speaking in a ridiculous press conference on the evening of Wednesday, January 14, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) went ballistic in a rambling attack on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, accusing them of having murdered a leftist protester who attacked them in Minneapolis, a clearly untrue statement that many conservatives contend is of the sort that puts ICE agents at risk.
As background, Democrats have been on the warpath against ICE agents and other immigration enforcement personnel generally since they started being unleashed on sanctuary cities when Trump was inaugurated, but that fury has reached a new pitch in the wake of two shootings involving federal immigration agents, one in Portland and the other in Minneapolis.
For reference, the Portland shooting involved two individuals who were allegedly affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua attacking an immigration agent and being shot. The other incident involved Renee Good being shot and killed when allegedly trying to run over an ICE agent in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis incident garnered much more notoriety in the leftist press.
Since then, a great many Democrats, some of them formerly thought of as reasonable figures who could be trusted to at least not slander government personnel, have mercilessly attacked ICE agents over the shooting, repeatedly alleging that it was not a justified shooting, despite the agent involved sustaining internal bleeding from being hit by the car, and that ICE is randomly murdering progressive protesters.
Amongst those who threw such charges at ICE was Rep. Jeffries, who led off his absurd press conference by insisting that Americans thought that Trump was only going to target “felons” rather than illegal aliens generally, insisting, “The American people thought that the Trump administration was going to target violent felons who are here in the country illegally.”
Continuing, the House Minority Leader then charged the ICE agents involved in the altercation with outright murder, insisting that they had randomly shot and killed Renee Good in cold blood, insisting, “But instead we see American citizens like Rene Nicole Good being gunned down in cold blood without justification.”
Adding to that, he suggested that ICE might be stripped of its funding in response to the shooting incident, then accused the agency of “extremism”, saying, “Taxpayer dollars are being used by the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to unleash extremism on the streets of America by individuals who are showing depraved indifference to human life.”
"*" indicates required fields
Watch him here:
Jeffries has also posted threats against ICE on X. In one such post he snapped, “To all members of the Trump administration. The incitement and engagement in state violence against the American people is a serious crime. Donald Trump will leave office long before the five-year statute of limitations expires. You are hereby put on notice.”
In another, he pushed the same lie about Good being shot for no reason, saying, “Kristi Noem is a stone-cold liar who has zero credibility. There is nothing to suggest the shooting of an unarmed woman in Minneapolis was justified. This heinous killing must be criminally investigated to the full extent of the law.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video