Interfere with immigration arrests = obstruction charges

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article said they questioned the agents. Questioning plain clothes officers is now a criminal offense?!

Yes. In Trumps America, you must stand quietly while men in black with masks and no insignias, identification, or warrants, who do not identify themselves, grab women off the street. And hope it’s “just” ICE acting outside the law and not human traffickers.

FFS— how hard is it to identify your agency, show a badge and provide a warrant? This is scary sh*t.

Also I am not clear on how this squares with the mens rea requirement for criminal offenses

I’m a lawyer, and that’s my point. It’s not there. For the 95% of people who were forced to take criminal law: In order to obstruct an official proceeding, you must know that it’s an official proceeding you are stopping and not a woman being kidnapped. “Accidentally” criming isn’t a thing. If you don’t know they are ICE and have probable cause for an arrest, there is no crime. This is why LEO carry badges and show warrants. Maybe Trumps goons should try that? It’s not hard.

I'm somewhat confused. Is the DHS exempt from showing identification and warrants?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The feds are going to make an example of these people that interfere with ICE. People say you can indict a ham sandwich and the federal government has a very strong conviction rate.

Judges will toss these ridiculous cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FAFO

Let me guess? You also have a Don’t Thread on Me flag/license plate, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If people don't know whether someone is actually a W enforcement officer or not this does not seem like a legitimate obstruction case. When officers don't present their badge, or actually state that they are even an officer and wear civilian clothing other people will think someone is being kidnapped.

That’s what the Turkish student said. She thought she was being kidnapped and her life was in danger. Democracies don’t do sh!t like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article said they questioned the agents. Questioning plain clothes officers is now a criminal offense?!

My thought exactly. I watched the video and one of the agents was a middle-aged guy with a long ponytail, kind of scruffy looking, and a loose plaid shirt. No way did he look like an LEO. He looked like a rando off the street. If I saw someone looking like they were being abducted by a random looking person in street clothes, I would try to help as well.

The agents provided proper identification to the bailiffs in the courthouse prior to the arrest.

According to Virginia public radio people in the courthouse allegedly noticed an ICE agent sitting in the courtroom and two others outside in the lobby.

“At some point, it became pretty clear that there were three people there that were not normally there, and that something was going to happen, although they never identified themselves,”

According to The Daily Progress the two women who obstructed the agents “appear to be volunteers with the Immigration Rapid Response Hotline, a public service promoted by several civil rights and immigrant support groups. A witness to the Tuesday raid told The Daily Progress that the hotline had been called when the ICE agents were spotted.”

These women were called to intervene in a federal immigration arrest. They knew who these men were. Game over. FAFO.

https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-04-23/albemarle-courthouse-ice-raid-nicholas-reppucci-teodoro-dominguez-rodriguez

https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_e6ce6e4a-4161-476f-8d28-94150a891092.html

The first story you posted contradicts what you're saying. ICE claimed they provided ID, but an individual from the Public Defender's Office said they didn't. The individual who is "clearly hiding his identity" sounds like the guy who's wearing a balaclava.

“None of us saw any identification, any badges, and no one said they had a warrant, showed a warrant, or identified themselves as law enforcement. And one, as seen in the video, is clearly hiding his identity,” Reppucci said Wednesday morning.

The agents identified themselves to the bailiffs who are in charge of security for the courthouse. In the video they identify themselves as officers from Homeland Security while being unlawfully touched and interfered with by activists called to obstruct a federal immigration arrest.

We'll see what happens in court.

TBH, the two "officers" would not strike anyone as LEO. One had a scruffy ponytail/bun and a baggy pink shirt over jeans, and the other guy was wearing a balaclava and carrying a large backpack with a water bottle in it--hardly serious or imposing figures. I don't care what they said they were--they don't look the part. ICE is pulling all kinds of people into service from other branches of government. There will be more incidences where people that do not look like LEO but claim to be LEO will accost foreigners in public settings and witnesses will be concerned and question their identity. Maybe tell the ponytail guy to cut his hair and look more the part?

Have you not heard of undercover agents.

They identified themselves to courthouse security when they entered the building.

Ponytail guy wore a baggy pink shirt to conceal his duty pistol.

The women obstructing their arrest were called to the courthouse well before the agents took any action because “allegedly” people in the courthouse figured out they were ICE.

They identified themselves as Homeland Security on video during the obstructed arrest.

People get arrested all the time without seeing the warrant for their arrest before they are handcuffed and detained.

ICE agents are not prohibited from wearing masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article said they questioned the agents. Questioning plain clothes officers is now a criminal offense?!

My thought exactly. I watched the video and one of the agents was a middle-aged guy with a long ponytail, kind of scruffy looking, and a loose plaid shirt. No way did he look like an LEO. He looked like a rando off the street. If I saw someone looking like they were being abducted by a random looking person in street clothes, I would try to help as well.

The agents provided proper identification to the bailiffs in the courthouse prior to the arrest.

According to Virginia public radio people in the courthouse allegedly noticed an ICE agent sitting in the courtroom and two others outside in the lobby.

“At some point, it became pretty clear that there were three people there that were not normally there, and that something was going to happen, although they never identified themselves,”

According to The Daily Progress the two women who obstructed the agents “appear to be volunteers with the Immigration Rapid Response Hotline, a public service promoted by several civil rights and immigrant support groups. A witness to the Tuesday raid told The Daily Progress that the hotline had been called when the ICE agents were spotted.”

These women were called to intervene in a federal immigration arrest. They knew who these men were. Game over. FAFO.

https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-04-23/albemarle-courthouse-ice-raid-nicholas-reppucci-teodoro-dominguez-rodriguez

https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_e6ce6e4a-4161-476f-8d28-94150a891092.html

The first story you posted contradicts what you're saying. ICE claimed they provided ID, but an individual from the Public Defender's Office said they didn't. The individual who is "clearly hiding his identity" sounds like the guy who's wearing a balaclava.

“None of us saw any identification, any badges, and no one said they had a warrant, showed a warrant, or identified themselves as law enforcement. And one, as seen in the video, is clearly hiding his identity,” Reppucci said Wednesday morning.

The agents identified themselves to the bailiffs who are in charge of security for the courthouse. In the video they identify themselves as officers from Homeland Security while being unlawfully touched and interfered with by activists called to obstruct a federal immigration arrest.

We'll see what happens in court.

TBH, the two "officers" would not strike anyone as LEO. One had a scruffy ponytail/bun and a baggy pink shirt over jeans, and the other guy was wearing a balaclava and carrying a large backpack with a water bottle in it--hardly serious or imposing figures. I don't care what they said they were--they don't look the part. ICE is pulling all kinds of people into service from other branches of government. There will be more incidences where people that do not look like LEO but claim to be LEO will accost foreigners in public settings and witnesses will be concerned and question their identity. Maybe tell the ponytail guy to cut his hair and look more the part?

Have you not heard of undercover agents.

They identified themselves to courthouse security when they entered the building.

Ponytail guy wore a baggy pink shirt to conceal his duty pistol.

The women obstructing their arrest were called to the courthouse well before the agents took any action because “allegedly” people in the courthouse figured out they were ICE.

They identified themselves as Homeland Security on video during the obstructed arrest.

People get arrested all the time without seeing the warrant for their arrest before they are handcuffed and detained.

ICE agents are not prohibited from wearing masks.

They “identified” themselves by just saying they were. That’s not worth anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If people don't know whether someone is actually a W enforcement officer or not this does not seem like a legitimate obstruction case. When officers don't present their badge, or actually state that they are even an officer and wear civilian clothing other people will think someone is being kidnapped.

That’s what the Turkish student said. She thought she was being kidnapped and her life was in danger. Democracies don’t do sh!t like this.

The Turkish student's case upsets me the most of all the ones we have discussed in this forum. She has been jailed for over a month in a Louisiana detention center for co-authoring an editorial in her school newspaper. The video of her abduction by six plainclothes ICE officers has been seen by many people and is the most dramatic example of thuggish ICE tactics we've seen so far.

The great irony in this story is that this is happening at a time when students in her home country are protesting the actions of the country's authoritarian government, which jailed the leading political rival of president Erdogan, in the largest wave of political protest in Turkey in over a decade. The government has banned protests and detained around 2,000 people. Almost 200 have gone on trial, mostly students. Notably, plainclothes police are patrolling university campuses, presumably to spy on students. Imagine the student's surprise when SHE was picked up by masked, plainclothes LEOs off the street IN AMERICA while the very same thing is going on in her country. We are supposed to be better than Turkey and other countries led by authoritarian quasi-dictators. I'm sure she couldn't have imagined in 100 years that such a thing would happen to her in the United States of America. I'm appalled and ashamed that such a thing happened to a guest in our country. If it had happened to an American student in Turkey, there would have been a huge uproar here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/29/world/middleeast/turkey-opposition.html

[Anonymous]

The law is the law

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The law is the law

Oh, please. Where was your stick-up-your-ass "law is the law" when Trump released over 1200 January 6 criminals from jail?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The feds are going to make an example of these people that interfere with ICE. People say you can indict a ham sandwich and the federal government has a very strong conviction rate.

I mean yes, a competent federal government wins in Court. But, the Trump Administration is losing time after time after time on these government overreach cases

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The law is the law

What does that even mean in this case? The law isn’t what the bailiffs knew. It’s what the bystanders knew. If they didn’t know it was ICE— with a valid warrant— the law says Trump should sit down and STFU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember the two women in masks that interfered with an immigration arrest in a Charlottesville courthouse? They will face obstruction charges like the Wisconsin judge.

https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_e6ce6e4a-4161-476f-8d28-94150a891092.html

Why can't they just present ID and warrants?

"Of the three plainclothes ICE agents captured on camera arresting one of the two men as he emerged from Albemarle County General District Court on Tuesday, one was wearing a balaclava masking his face and none displayed badges or arrest warrants to the man."

Because that's not how the secret police work.

If you want to feel even more beat down by this, the truth is that the fact that ICE is wearing masks is actually a good thing. They still fear or have concerns about accountability. When they start taking the masks off while doing the same thing then you will know we are well and truly effed.

[Anonymous]

Nobody is above the law

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The article said they questioned the agents. Questioning plain clothes officers is now a criminal offense?!

My thought exactly. I watched the video and one of the agents was a middle-aged guy with a long ponytail, kind of scruffy looking, and a loose plaid shirt. No way did he look like an LEO. He looked like a rando off the street. If I saw someone looking like they were being abducted by a random looking person in street clothes, I would try to help as well.

The agents provided proper identification to the bailiffs in the courthouse prior to the arrest.

According to Virginia public radio people in the courthouse allegedly noticed an ICE agent sitting in the courtroom and two others outside in the lobby.

“At some point, it became pretty clear that there were three people there that were not normally there, and that something was going to happen, although they never identified themselves,”

According to The Daily Progress the two women who obstructed the agents “appear to be volunteers with the Immigration Rapid Response Hotline, a public service promoted by several civil rights and immigrant support groups. A witness to the Tuesday raid told The Daily Progress that the hotline had been called when the ICE agents were spotted.”

These women were called to intervene in a federal immigration arrest. They knew who these men were. Game over. FAFO.

https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-04-23/albemarle-courthouse-ice-raid-nicholas-reppucci-teodoro-dominguez-rodriguez

https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/crime-courts/article_e6ce6e4a-4161-476f-8d28-94150a891092.html

The first story you posted contradicts what you're saying. ICE claimed they provided ID, but an individual from the Public Defender's Office said they didn't. The individual who is "clearly hiding his identity" sounds like the guy who's wearing a balaclava.

“None of us saw any identification, any badges, and no one said they had a warrant, showed a warrant, or identified themselves as law enforcement. And one, as seen in the video, is clearly hiding his identity,” Reppucci said Wednesday morning.

The agents identified themselves to the bailiffs who are in charge of security for the courthouse. In the video they identify themselves as officers from Homeland Security while being unlawfully touched and interfered with by activists called to obstruct a federal immigration arrest.

We'll see what happens in court.

TBH, the two "officers" would not strike anyone as LEO. One had a scruffy ponytail/bun and a baggy pink shirt over jeans, and the other guy was wearing a balaclava and carrying a large backpack with a water bottle in it--hardly serious or imposing figures. I don't care what they said they were--they don't look the part. ICE is pulling all kinds of people into service from other branches of government. There will be more incidences where people that do not look like LEO but claim to be LEO will accost foreigners in public settings and witnesses will be concerned and question their identity. Maybe tell the ponytail guy to cut his hair and look more the part?

And, you know, shows badge and warrants and act like LEOs. People are screened in Courthouses for weapons. But outside, like with the girl from Tufts, they are going to get shot at some point— by someone who genuinely thinks they are abducting someone.

I’m a Fed. This administration is tough on us all. But if you can’t behave like a professional while working with the public, it’s time to leave. Or be told to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why wouldn't these cases be dismissed with prejudice?

If the story is accurate, they will be. This and Judge that was arrested is about intimidating the general public so they don’t push back, not putting criminals in jail.