Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan has been in the national spotlight over actions she allegedly took to shield an illegal immigrant from arrest by ICE in mid-April. And after Dugan’s FBI arrest last Friday, at least one other Wisconsin judge, Sawyer County Circuit Judge Monica Isham, stood in solidarity with her, vowing in a letter sent to state judges that she had “no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp.”
While judges going full and unabashed Resistance is obviously a deeply disturbing development, leftist agitators initiating physical contact with federal agents is troubling in its own right.
Though it’s not uncommon for woke activists to try and provoke physical altercations with law enforcement, what happened in a Charlottesville, Virginia courthouse last Tuesday saw activists take it in a different direction – by putting their hands on an ICE agent to block him from arresting an illegal immigrant who was attempting to leave the courthouse:
Video shows the moment one of the ICE agents interacting with [Teodoro] Dominguez Rodriguez while two women tried to defend him by standing between him and the official. It’s not known what their relation to Dominguez Rodriguez is.’Do not impede me in my lawful duties, that is a crime,’ the agent can be heard telling the women.One of the women hit back by demanding he showed them a warrant for the arrest, and grabbing the agent by his arms as he closed in on Dominguez Rodriguez.’Get off me or I am calling the US attorney and prosecuting for assault on a federal officer,’ the agent warned her, prompting her to raise her arms in the air.
Watch:
Dominguez-Rodriguez was eventually arrested, which only further enraged the woketivists, who staged a UVA-instigated protest at the courthouse the next day:
“We want to know why the sheriff did nothing while this happened when it’s not legal to be in a courthouse with a face covering and why these people were taken without due process. We want to know if there is a memorandum of understanding between the sheriff and ICE,” said Natalie Aviles, a protestor.[…]Frank Dukes, another protester drew emotional parallels to historical events.”My uncle was picked up by the Nazis. No identification. No charge. Nothing they could do. We see the same thing happening in this country,” said Dukes.
Mr. Dukes is an urban and environmental planning lecturer at UVA, and has a bio that boasts of how the “bulk of my work involves equitable collaboration.” Shockingly, Ms. Aviles, who is an assistant professor of sociology at UVA, left out the inconvenient part about the two female activists who were wearing masks during the incident, as did a UVA law professor, according to the below screengrab:
The Public Defenders’ Office was also “concerned,” according to CBS 19 News:
“If people who are summoned to court are going to be arrested, a lot less people are going to be willing to come to court and that’s not just in a criminal context… not because they’re intimidated by civilians but because they’re intimidated by the federal government,” said public defender Nicholas Reppucci.
Watch:
Other local “leaders” are also expressing outrage, not with the activists but with ICE:
Meanwhile, the manner of Tuesday’s detention continues to draw concern. Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley said he has launched an investigation.“I am grateful that no one was hurt in this operation,” Hingeley told The Daily Progress via email, “but I am also greatly concerned that arrests carried out in this manner could escalate into a violent confrontation, because the person being arrested or bystanders might resist what appears on its face to be an unlawful assault and abduction.”Charlottesville’s delegation to the General Assembly in Richmond is also demanding answers.
Guess who is a supporter of Hingeley’s? You’ll never believe this: George Soros.
The uproar generated by the incident prompted Albemarle County Sheriff Chan Bryant to issue a statement, which read in part:
When the agents were presenting their identification and credential none of the agents were wearing any face coverings. The agents informed the bailiffs at that time that they were there to detain two individuals who had court cases in the Albemarle County General District Court. The federal agents showed the bailiff their paperwork and photographs of the individuals they were looking for and waited outside the courtroom until the conclusion of each case.
“At no time was this a raid of the courthouse,” Bryant also wrote. “These individuals were identified by the federal agents and taken into custody with paperwork in hand for them.”
As for the two agitators who tried to stop ICE from arresting Dominguez-Rodriguez, ICE confirmed in a statement that the two women will be prosecuted:
ICE and federal law enforcement partners coordinated a lawful arrest with the Albemarle General District Court of an illegally present, violent Honduran alien with multiple arrests for assault and battery as well as an outstanding order of protection against him. Two bystanders unsuccessfully attempted to obstruct enforcement efforts, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office intends to prosecute those individuals.
Throw the book at them.
-Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter/X.-
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