United States Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks said Monday that “false information” led to a gunman attacking a United States Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas.
Authorities say Ryan Louis Mosqueda, a 27-year-old Michigan resident, opened fire on the U.S. Border Patrol facility Monday before Border Patrol agents and local law enforcement neutralized him, according to The Associated Press. “America Reports” co-host John Roberts asked Banks if the attack was a surprise.
“It is not, and as you reported earlier, we have seen our assaults go up dramatically. And you know Border Patrol agents are doing their job, enforcing the law, protecting the communities. We have Border Patrol agents on the river right now on the Guadalupe assisting with rescue efforts,” Banks said. “These agents are outstanding Americans, they’re just trying to enforce the law. But all of the rhetoric and the false information that is being put out by the left is just increasing violence against our agents and it’s just unacceptable.”
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Assaults on ICE agents have increased by 500% while trying to arrest illegal immigrants, Breitbart News reported in June. Banks urged the administration to take a two-pronged approach to the increasing violence directed at ICE and the Border Patrol.
“We’ve got to get out in front of the narrative, we’ve got to continue coming on and speaking to you in making sure that we are getting the truth out. We’ve got to continue our messaging, right? But then, we’ve also got to hold those that are encouraging violence against law enforcement and inciting violence, we’ve got to hold them accountable and prosecute those individuals as well,” Banks said. “And no, it is not acceptable to incite violence against law enforcement officers, we have to prosecute, we will have to prosecute these people to the fullest extent of the law to let them know that this is not going to be tolerated.”
Upon taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration and border security, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang TdA and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up the deportation of gang members on March 15.
Democratic Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles showed up at a location where ICE was carrying out an operation Monday, demanding that the agents leave the vicinity, echoing demands from some Democrats that the agency cease its operations in the Los Angeles area as a way to “restore order” in the city after riots broke out following an ICE operation in June.
In June, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington labeled ICE as a “terrorist force” following an event in Spokane, Washington, while also claiming the agency was “kidnapping” people. Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida claimed during a June appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” that ICE was engaged in “human trafficking.”
Resistance to ICE operations to arrest illegal immigrants has also included a Milwaukee judge who allegedly helped an illegal immigrant briefly evade ICE agents sent to arrest an illegal immigrant in April and Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell of Nashville releasing the names of ICE agents involved in a crackdown on illegal immigrants in the city in May.
In New York City, ICE agents arrested Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander June 18 after he allegedly interfered with an ICE operation in a Manhattan court. Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey was charged with assaulting an ICE agent after a May incident at an ICE facility in Newark.
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