State Sen. Julia Salazar Calls for Prosecutions of ICE Officers Who Assault New Yorkers
“If an ICE officer assaults a New Yorker, that officer must be arrested and prosecuted by state and local authorities," she said in a statement.
New York State Senator Julia Salazar (D) is demanding that federal agents be prosecuted by state and local authorities if they assault New Yorkers.
“The NYPD [New York Police Department], the NYS [New York State] Police and other New York law enforcement agencies must protect New Yorkers from the violent actions of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] officers and other federal officers,” she wrote in a statement posted on X on Thursday, October 23. “If an ICE officer assaults a New Yorker, that officer must be arrested and prosecuted by state and local authorities.”
Earlier this week, masked federal agents terrorized Canal Street in Lower Manhattan. New Yorkers acted quickly, descending on the area to protest ICE and protect community members. Several people were disappeared in the raid, including four U.S. citizens who were later released. Their families had filed missing persons reports with the NYPD, according to the New York Immigration Coalition, as per ABC News.
“If an ICE officer assaults a New Yorker, that officer must be arrested and prosecuted by state and local authorities,” State Senator Julia Salazar said in a statement.
Assistant Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that, “ICE conducted a targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation on Canal Street,” that was “focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.”
After the raid, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced her office had created an online portal to collect information on ICE activity.
“Every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation,” James said in a statement. “If you witnessed and documented ICE activity yesterday, I urge you to share that footage with my office.”
She continued, “We are committed to reviewing these reports and assessing any violations of law. No one should be subject to unlawful questioning, detention, or intimidation.”
In Salazar’s statement, she urged New York officials to follow the lead of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins “who recently made clear that if federal officers engage in unlawful excessive force in San Francisco, local authorities can and will arrest them.”
This week, in advance of plans to flood San Francisco with federal agents, Pelosi issued a joint statement with California Congressman Kevin Mullin (D), stating, in part, “Our state and local authorities may arrest federal agents if they break California law — and if they are convicted, the President cannot pardon them.”
Jenkins told Politico that “if there is a provable case” against troops or federal agents, that she is “not going to hesitate to move forward, regardless of how difficult that hurdle may be.”
In 2022, Jenkins replaced Chesa Boudin as San Francisco’s District Attorney. Boudin, who was considered a progressive prosecutor, was voted out in a recall election — supported by Jenkins — that was awash in fear-mongering tactics, boosted by Fox News, and bankrolled by Republican billionaires.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump walked back his threat to invade San Francisco, posting on Truth Social that after speaking with the mayor of San Francisco, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, he had decided to call off the “surge.”
In response to Pelosi and Jenkins’s statements, the U.S. Attorney General’s office sent a letter to Pelosi, Jenkins, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and Attorney General of California Rob Bonta, stating that the Department of Justice, “views any arrests of federal agents and officers in the performance of their official duties as both illegal and futile.”
“Numerous federal laws prohibit interfering with and impeding immigration or other law enforcement operations,” Deputy Attorney General and former Trump attorney Todd Blanche wrote. “The Department of Justice will investigate and prosecute any state or local official who violates these federal statutes (or directs or conspires with others to violate them).”
He closed the letter writing:
We urge you and other California officials to publicly abandon this apparent criminal conspiracy, to stop threatening law enforcement, and to prioritize the safety of your citizens. In the meantime, federal agents and officers will continue to enforce federal law and will not be deterred by the threat of arrest by California authorities who have abdicated their duty to protect their constituents.
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