Part 3: What Laws Have the Anti-ICE Protesters Been Breaking? (posted 2/6/26)

This is the last of three columns of legal analysis of the anti-ICE protests.  I had feared that these would be too dry for most people, but more people have read these than my typical columns… so that’s good, right?

Some of the following info I first came across when I was teaching a Writing for Pre-Law course.  I looked back through my notes to refresh my memory, and then looked at a bunch of legal websites to reinforce and update my knowledge.  There might still be some errors here, and as always, I would appreciate corrections or fuller explanations from any lawyers in the audience.

My goal today is to look at the most common actions of the protesters, and explore what laws they might be violating.

As we know, the First Amendment protects the right to protest, though only peacefully.  To the extent that at least some of the protesters are exercising their free speech rights – castigating ICE officers without interfering with their actions – they’re good.

However, it’s become very clear that most of the protesters have been interfering with ICE officers, so that’s the best place to start.  The most commonly committed infractions would be covered by 18 U.S.C 1501 and 18 U.S.C. 111, which are parts of the US legal code addressing “the crime of interfering with federal officers while they are performing their duties.”  The key language describes action that “obstructs, resists or opposes” officers in that context.

The code “covers both direct physical acts and indirect methods of obstruction.”  Examples of physical acts would include blocking officers’ movements, making physical contact with or using any physical force on them.  The code also mentions “standing in front of an officer to prevent an arrest or shielding another person from apprehension.” 

The above actions probably make up at least half of what happens at many anti-ICE protests.  Protesters routinely surround cops, blocking them in on foot or in vehicles; they also try to get between officers and illegals to prevent their arrest.

This statute also forbids “threatening behavior,” which doesn’t have to be explicitly violent.  The test is whether the behaviors “create a reasonable fear of harm or intimidation,” and the code also mentions “verbal statements, gestures or electronic messages implying danger.”

Good lord!  Wouldn’t that encompass about 90% of the rioters on video in Minneapolis?  If everybody who posted threatening emails to ICE officials, or threatened to dox, injure or kill them were arrested, there’d be more un-F-able jailed leftists in Minnesota than there are fraudulent Somali Learing Centers!

If those weren’t enough, the code also makes clear that interference doesn’t always require direct threats or physical contact.  Activities like creating a diversion, refusing lawful orders and providing false information are also illegal.  Some of those would be charged under other codes.

For example, lying to federal law enforcement during an investigation falls under 19 U.S.C. 1001, and creating a distraction to aid an illegal falls under 1501. 

As a broad group, these offenses can be misdemeanors or felonies, depending on context.  Misdemeanors can be penalized by a year in federal prison and a fine up to $100K; felonies can draw long prison sentences (up to decades) and higher fines.    

More serious actions like use of a deadly or dangerous weapon (not just a gun, but also bricks or other thrown objects, fireworks, or striking with sticks or bats, etc.) or force that results in bodily injury are covered in Section 111.  Those are felonies, and could draw up to 20 years in prison. 

My general sense is that misdemeanors get escalated to felonies when they happen in conjunction with other illegal acts, or are repeated.  (For example, just entering the country illegally is a misdemeanor, but re-entry after being previously deported is a felony.)  But some charges can be surprisingly harsh; just intentionally touching an officer can be charged as a felony, with a penalty of up to 8 years in prison.  (Though I think that is almost never charged for touching alone.)  And spitting on an officer is considered touching/assault, and can be similarly charged.    

One legal summary concluded this way: “In protest settings, the moment someone makes physical contact – shoving, grabbing, pulling an officer, yanking a door, striking a hand/arm, trying to “un-cuff” a detainee – can jump to felony territory.”    

I looked up the constant, near-deafening blowing of whistles, and found mixed interpretations.  In some contexts those can apparently count as permissible (if rowdy) speech, while in others they can constitute harassment/obstruction or even threat of harm (as they can create pain and at least potential longer-term hearing impairment).

I would argue – and I’d like to see this tested in court – that the loud whistling must constitute a form of impeding/obstructing, because its obvious purpose is to harm officers’ ability to carry out their duties.  It prevents them from hearing or giving orders or warnings, and agitates and disorients them, degrading their situational awareness.  As I wrote in a previous column, I’m almost certain that the whistling contributed to Alex Pretti’s death, because the cop who recovered his gun right before Pretti was shot would have yelled out that he had the weapon, as cops are taught to do in that situation.  But the whistling idiots kept that knowledge from the other cops, thus facilitating Pretti’s shooting.  (So great job, whistling idiots!)

In addition to all of those infractions, many protests involve a lot of property damage and trespassing, too.  Property damage can be a misdemeanor (usually if the damage done is under $500 or $1000) or a felony (for larger amounts).

Trespassing is entering government or private property, and also remaining after being told to leave; the former would include ICE or police facilities and courts, while the latter would include hotels or restaurants (which violent leftist dopes often enter and damage because they think ICE agents are staying there or dining there).

Don Lemon and the Morons (worst cover band ever, by the way) are in deep trouble, because they definitely trespassed in that church.  But they’ve been charged with the much more specific and serious FACE act and/or Klan act violations.

Two other crimes are also constantly in play during protests: resisting arrest (for those who are told they are being detained) and disobeying a lawful order (for virtually everyone, when told to get back, or get out of the way, or to stop assaulting our senses with your hideous ugliness).  Of the hundreds of protesters whose arrests I’ve seen on video, I can’t remember more than a small handful who didn’t resist arrest.  (Usually while screaming “I’m not resisting!” over and over, as they wriggle and struggle and fight with the cops.)    

Finally, I researched one legal issue that I haven’t seen discussed much in the media, and that is conspiracy.   The current wave of anti-ICE protests – just like the BLM and Antifa mass riots before them – have been characterized by extensive, sophisticated, coordinated planning.  Hundreds (maybe thousands?) of people join various ICE watch groups, use Signal chat to collect intelligence about where ICE are staying, or eating, or carrying out raids and arrests, and then relay that information to a network of co-conspirators who show up and commit all of the crimes listed above.

This is a textbook example of a wide-ranging conspiracy, which one of the legal sources summarized this way: “Conspiracy: the multiplier that turns group activity into felony time.”

If only!  I’m not sure why Homan or anyone else in the Trump administration has not brought this up, but I hope that they start throwing resources at it, pronto.  Because as satisfying and proper as it is to start making mass and individual arrests and prosecutions of the useful idiot foot-soldiers in these protests, the biggest progress will be made when we start hitting the organizers and funders with huge criminal penalties.

Conspiracy violations are covered in a variety of US codes.  Section 372 deals with “conspiracy to impede or injure an officer by force, intimidation or threat,” and carries up to 6 years in prison. 

Section 371 covers coordinating to obstruct lawful government functions.  Examples would include communications such as, “We’re going to meet at X, track vehicles and physically stop transport,” and action such as participating in group chats with coordinated roles, and arranging pre-planned timing and movements.

Section 1071 describes harboring and helping someone evade government officers such as ICE agents (with a possible 1 to 5 years for each act), and Sections 2232 and 1519 deal with destroying property or evidence to prevent seizure, or giving “tip-offs” about ICE activity (up to 5 years) and “destroying/altering records” (up to 20 years).  

Though I’ve been following all of these protests (and the antifa and BLM protests) pretty closely, doing this research has opened my eyes on several issues I’d not realized:

1. The vast majority of the anti-ICE protesters and protest organizers have routinely been committing more crimes than I’d thought, both misdemeanors and felonies.  (There are probably a handful of protestors who have not been violating at least one of the crimes listed above, but they are the exception to the rule, and I’d be shocked if they were more than 1-2% of the protesters.)

2. Virtually all of the leftist talking points about these protests are false: 

• The First Amendment does NOT permit protests that are not peaceful, and these aren’t.
• The Supremacy Clause dictates that local politicians and citizens CANNOT legally declare their cities sanctuaries and ban ICE (or any federal agency). 
• Our legitimate, democratically passed immigration laws clearly state that immigrating here illegally is a crime; there’s no such thing as a non-criminal, “undocumented,” “legal” illegal alien, and ALL illegals are subject to deportation. 
• Very few asylum claims – and none of them that have been pursued outside of legal channels – are valid.
• And no American law enforcement agencies or actions are in the same moral universe as the Gestapo, you lying, hypocritical jackasses!

3. I had no idea how many legal weapons there are in our arsenal; we can use any of several dozen laws to charge and convict the protesters and their leaders.

As much as I’d love to see us charge thousands (or tens of thousands?) of protesters with thousands of crimes, and try all of them, that is logistically impractical.  It would take many years and tie up half our legal system, and to the extent that we’d need to depend on some local (and left-biased) judges and juries, we’d likely see a wave of destructive jury nullification verdicts.

We’ll be better off focusing on the leaders, and the worst of the bad actors among the protesters – maybe 100-150 of them – and go after them on federal charges, using the same intensity with which the Democrats pursued every Midwestern grannie who walked through the capitol on January 6th, took a selfie, and peacefully left. 

The reason the Antifa and BLM protests spread and grew into riots in 2020 – and the anti-ICE agitators have metastasized and escalated over the last year – is that almost nobody has been punished.  So we need to send a message, and make an example of these people “pour encourager les autres,” as the French say. 

If we can legally and morally put the worst 150 through what the Democrats illegitimately put the peaceful J6ers (not the brawlers) through – harassing them, bankrupting them, and sending them to jail for at least a few years – that would establish a powerful deterrent.

Especially if we focused on the conspiracy angle. These coordinated groups seem to be perfect targets for a RICO approach, and after the first couple of street-level and then coordinator-level creeps went down, we’d probably be able to flip some to use against the commie Colombos who were the bosses.  (Boom!  Mafia-Leftist alliterative analogies for $1000, Alex.) (We would also have accepted “the bolshevik Bonannos,” or the “leftist Luccheses.”)  

The one thing we can’t do is back off and let the insurrectionist protesters think they’ve won something.  I don’t think Homan will let that happen, but I’m a little concerned that the draw-down of agents from MN might be premature, especially if Small Frey and Jazz Hands start crowing about it.

I understand political realities, and I know that we can’t just go Roman on the protesters, as would be my own arch-conservative desire. 

But if we can’t go Roman, we should still be able to at least go Homan on their arses.

Hamas (and Trantifa) delenda est!

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