Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons spoke with Sean Hannity Wednesday night about what it looks like on the ground in Los Angeles amid ongoing anti-ICE riots.
Officials in Los Angeles are wearing riot gear and tactical kits due to the “pure anarchy” in the city streets. The rioters, Hannity said, were protecting people convicted of homicide, burglary, and other “extensive” crimes.
“That list right there, like you said, you can keep going. That’s what frustrates all of us is the fact that what started this whole thing was ICE conducting a federal law enforcement operation that involved us serving a criminal search warrant and arrest warrant on immigration violations,” Lyons said.
“We have federal officers being surrounded in the thousands inside a federal building. We have to launch other federal SWAT and special operations teams to rescue them,” Lyons added. “We actually have senior leaders having to don riot gear and tactical kit, launching tear gas themselves to protect themselves because they’re being overrun in their positions. That shouldn’t happen in an American city, especially to sworn law enforcement officers that are out there arresting these individuals that just you listed.”
“I’m actually out here in L.A. I’ve been on the ground since Saturday with the folks seeing this stuff firsthand. What I can tell you is it’s pure anarchy,” Lyons said. “When you have elected leaders saying that it’s peaceful and as long as you dodge the burnt cars or no one’s been shot, no one’s been hit in the head, that’s totally wrong.”
“I can tell you from firsthand experience what the brave men and women of ICE, the brave men and women of the Department of Justice, all our federal partners, and the brave men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department have been dealing with day in, all night long. It’s bad out here,” Lyons added. “To think that all we’re trying to do is our law enforcement mission and we have to deal with this. It’s just so un-American on so many different scales.”
Watch Lyons’ interview above.
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