MSNBC Contributor Implies Violence Against ICE Agents is Justified
“When you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves.”
MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney appointed by Obama, seemed to justify violence against ICE agents while speaking to host Ali Velshi on Monday. It’s similar to what we recently saw from Sunny Hostin of The View.
Progressive media figures are not just defending violence against ICE agents, they’re bending over backwards to justify it, mainly using the excuse of masks, which are necessary to protect their own safety and that of their families.
Partial transcript by NewsBusters (emphasis is theirs):
ALI VELSHI: Joyce, let me ask you one thing….You’re a prosecutor, I want to ask you, there are legitimate reasons why some enforcement agencies, some police agencies, go undercover or, you know, do things in shadows to achieve certain things. I would assume that’s specific and, you know, it needs to be, needs to comport with some laws.
JOYCE VANCE: Exactly. There are very serious legal restrictions around the use of, for instance, FBI agents as undercover operatives. Very strict rules regarding how it’s done, what they can do, what they can’t do. But you know what I’ve never seen a federal agent working a case do is pull a mask up so nobody knows who they are and go out and terrorize a civilian population.
And I think it’s important for us at this point to be very plain-speaking when we say that this is not normal, it’s not acceptable, and it’s a danger sign. You know, we are well past the point where we can just identify danger signs and say, oh, there might be problems down the road. The problems are here, they’re in the right now.
And as we see people being pulled off the streets — you know, the danger to law enforcement, quite frankly, is that when you’re masked like that and people don’t know who you are, someone might exercise their lawful right of self-defense to protect themselves, thinking they’re being kidnapped. So the notion that this is for law enforcement’s protection is utterly ludicrous. And we need to do away with that.
Watch below:
WATCH: MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance suggests civilian attacks on masked ICE agents are legally justified.
“Someone might exercise their lawful right of self defense to protect themselves.” pic.twitter.com/xF4bHwK0io
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) July 14, 2025
In the early days of the Tea Party movement, progressives in media constantly warned of potential violence that never materialized. Today, many of the same people are working overtime to justify the very real violence of the left.
Featured image via Twitter/X video.
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Comments
ok
so how to get around the
they are masked we dont know who they are.
then how about the local police who are known and not masked start doing the arresting
The LAPD won’t be allowed to make arrests for immigration crimes, and the feds can’t make them.
leftist new demands:
if you are going to wear a mask
you must arrest from at least 6 ft away
Some already committed violence against this woman’s face. Was she masked at the time??
The reason sh*tlib womb-men embraced masking with such vim and vigor.
Great. You insulted an ugly woman’s looks. Now JR is going to come talk about your genitals.
He’s not Beteljuice is he?
🤣🤣
You are incorrect. That is an ugly mask she is wearing.
There you have it, the unmasking of the left has exposed their despotism and unbridled hate.
Don’t forget ugliness.
So, this twit contends that masks are allegedly bad when used by law enforcement officers to protect themselves and their families, but, are good when used by the vile Dhimmi-crats’ goose-stepping, terrorist cadres of “Anti-fa” thugs and Hamasholes/Islamofascists?
Color me skeptical that an illegal alien, who already knows he’s here illegally is going to honestly think he’s being KIDNAPPED when he’s arrested by a group of armed, masked men, even if they are not wearing identifiable clothing (I suspect ICE almost always does, anyway).
There is nothing honest about these claims.
Their badges are usually visible (if not required to be visible) and all their gear is marked “ICE”. Because nobody being arrested knows these officers personally, revealing their faces won’t actually help the subject of an arrest know that he’s being placed in custody by actual federal agents and not by persons masquerading as such.
Bingo. The mask issue is 100% bullshit, if the agents wear uniforms, badges, etc.
We’ve seen a couple of complaints that such-and-such a troublemaker was thrown in an unmarked vehicle by masked men in civilian clothes. Where’s the video on that, please? This is a complaint from the same quality of yutz as the one about the guy who threw a tear gas can at cops getting arrested for “dindu nuffin.”
Was she asked about masked protesters – so they couldn’t be ID’d? Nope.
change the uniforms from
ICE
to
Mexico
Venezuela
etc
If they want to be lawless, oblige them. Teach them why it’s a bad idea.
Well … it’s not hard for someone to get a cop/ICE uniform and fake ID, so no one can ever be sure they are interacting with real police or ICE, no matter what they are wearing, what they show or anything, so I’m not sure what point this bint thinks she is making.
And that is beside the real point that dems/leftists don’t believe in the “right of self-defense”, to begin with. For dems, the only factors governing the adjudication of any violent conflict between people is what the skin colors are, what sexual perversions are in play, or which one likes America/The West and which one hates America/The West. For dems, those are the only relevant factors.
As I pointed out above, revealing ICE agents’ faces won’t help dispel the arrest subject’s potential perception that the agents are merely kidnappers, because the agents aren’t personally known to the people they’re arresting. So unmasking the agents simply won’t increase office safety.
Nor is it intended to do so. This argument isn’t even intended to make sense. It’s intent is simply to “justify” ramping up the violence.
“dems/leftists don’t believe in the “right of self-defense”, to begin with”
…for YOU.
Does her attitude that a mask means self-defense is valid apply to Antefa?
When antifa attacks you, you already have the right to defend yourself whether they are masked or unmasked. It’s only LE against whom you may not defend yourself if and only if you know for a fact that they are LE.
How does unmasking ICE agents prevent arrest subjects from mistaking them for kidnappers? ICE agents aren’t known personally to their subjects, so it’s impossible to recognize them as officers by being able to see their faces. Their gear is already covered with “ICE” and their badges should be displayed on whatever it is they are wearing. Merely being unmasked would not help anyone identify anyone as LE who is not known to them personally already.
The person’s claim is that they’re not wearing badges or anything else that would identify them as LEO. Whether it’s happening or not, that’s what she’s commenting on, and correctly noting that it is a risk. What she’s ignoring is the risk of not masking, which she is pretending doesn’t exist.
I wouldn’t dooo that.
This person needs to be held accountable as does the TV station
She’s not wrong. This is a known risk LE take whenever they take action against someone without adequately identifying themselves — there’s always a chance that the person will mistake them for criminals and defend himself. It happens from time to time with no-knock raids, especially in the early morning when the occupants are asleep.
Sometimes a vicious and corrupt DA will prosecute the occupant, even though it was clearly legitimate self-defense, and count on the jury being biased for LEO and against the defendant. But an honest DA will accept that these things happen, and it’s a risk LE take.
In this case ICE have to balance that risk against the known risk of going unmasked, which is that antifa-type activists will harass them and their families forever, and they’ll never know peace. So they’ve decided masking themselves is the lesser risk.
They have visible badges, they have ice and police stamped all over their vests in large letters and I’m certain they say ice police you’re under arrest put your hands behind your back blah blah blah blah. It doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for doubt
Not in the situations we have here — mass raids with dozens of cops, street actions.
But fake police in general are a real threat to the unwary citizen.
I mean, ask Melissa Hortman.
What you say here is true. For instance, the main problem with no-knock raids is that anyone behind a door can yell “Police!” and that is thoroughly inadequate to identify them positively as actual police.
ICE agents do wear clearly marked gear and badges. That’s about as good as it gets, and even then someone can be an imposter (as happened in Canada in an incident in which an imposter fooled a cop and she was killed by the imposter who then took her weapon).
The major flaw in the interviewee’s analysis is that because the arrest subjects don’t know the arresting officers personally, unmasking the officers will not help the subject identify the officers as legit. They can’t say, “Oh, I know you. You’re office Jones.” Such recognition just doesn’t exist, so Jones might as well have a mask on to protect himself and his family.
Personal recognition is almost never a thing with any LE. Who knows every policeman in their city/town/whatever? How many people know any of them?
The speaker’s premise here (whether true or false) is that the officers are not identifying themselves as officers at all, but simply grabbing people who have no idea what’s happening to them. And she correctly says that’s a risk. But sometimes it’s a worthwhile risk because the opposite course is even riskier.
There is a minor point here. Some bad cop roughs you up, you make a complaint, describe him, pick him out of a lineup. He has a mask on, you’re SOL.
Funny thing is the only video I have seen of ICE agents without visible badges and visible vests that say ICE and POLICE on them were some standing on a corner watching a group of aliens. The fact that none of them were wearing vests or badges probably meant they just got out of their vehicle and were about to put on their vests because you know if they actually had pictures of agents no one could tell were LE they would be on the front page of every paper.
I know all the officers in my town. Of course, we only have 2.
They’re masked to protect themselves from unvaccinated illegals. They’ve had no medical background done on them so who knows what they have.
If there are two dozen people making arrests and they all are wearing masks, it’s not likely one of them won’t be an actual LEO.
.
I will never lose any sleep about an illegal alien being kidnaped. This is not a problem. Please proceed especially if you kidnap them back across the border.
The reality that the vile Dhimmi-crats will never admit is that the only reason that ICE agents must mask themselves in the first place is because of the Dhimmi-crats’ full-throated and gleeful endorsement of and incitement of violence and harassment against them. If the Dhimmi-crats stood squarely on the side of law enforcement officers against criminals, terrorists and other assorted miscreants/subversives, masks wouldn’t be necessary.
It’s similar to why police in Mexico must wear masks — because the cartels threaten retribution against them and their families.
When a Federal Officer is murdered doing a lawful immigration enforcement then what these cretins say? Oh yeah, “see I told you so”. When a antifa thug is shot while throwing a deadly missile at law enforcement it will be spun into the next saint george moment. It’s what the lsm and demonrats want in the worst way.
Who, exactly,, would be out kidnapping random illegals? Some guy who wants a slave to mow his lawn and blow grass clippings all over the place?
Who are these kidnappers of illegals and how many illegals have they kidnapped in the last, say … 40 years?
Well, the cartels might have an interest in kidnapping some illegals for whatever reason, but they wouldn’t bother putting masks on and the illegals know that they would be in a far worse position to try and fight the kidnapping, so … The only sorts of people the illegals could fight off and not have to worry about their entire families being wiped out in the next few weeks are …. ICE and others.
I don’t see how any bit of this new leftist fantasy makes any sense, whatsoever. People are out there kidnapping illegals who have no money and no property and no nothing … I guess they could ransom them for packs of cigarettes or bottles of tequila.
There’s a point that they ought not to be wearing masks to act in the state’s name so that they can he held responsible for misbehavior later.
Violence isn’t the remedy though.
This chick could very well have yapped herself into a federal “incitement to violence” charge.
Unlikely but one can dream.
Does that also include when ICE agents are confronted by masked
terroristsprotesters bent on committing violence against them? Do they have the same right of self-defense? After all, ICE agents don’t know what these maskedterroristsprotesters are going to do and they should be able to defend themselves from any violence directed towards them.It is amusing to hear the left even admit that there is such a thing as a lawful right to self-defense. Perhaps someone should send her Mr. Branca’s book.
Violence Against obama-appointed crap like that is Justified .