Controversial Claims About ICE Operations
On Tuesday evening, former MSNBC host Tiffany Cross voiced her outrage, alleging that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were essentially “inviting” illegal immigrants to be taken to what she described as “concentration camps.”
President Trump’s second-term agenda has placed a strong emphasis on illegal immigration, a topic he campaigned on and continued to address through executive actions after assuming office on January 20. Cross accused ICE of “destroying people.”
“Talking about this is a challenge for me,” Cross remarked. “We’re normalizing the actions of government agencies that harm people. It’s alarming that we discuss this issue as if it’s routine for them to lure individuals and transport them to concentration camps, whether here or abroad.”
During this heated discussion, New York Post editor Kelly Jane Torrance attempted to respond, indicating that she found Cross’s claims insulting, but Cross quickly interrupted her.
Torrance countered, stating, “These are not death camps; they have gas chambers.” Despite this clarification, Cross maintained that the actions taken by ICE were indeed tantamount to those of concentration camps.
Trump has defined certain groups, such as Mexican drug cartels and specific prison gangs from Venezuela and El Salvador, as foreign terrorist organizations. This designation is part of his strategy to expedite the deportation of gang members, aligning with a historical law aimed at alien enemies.
Following increased ICE enforcement in June, protests erupted, starting in Los Angeles and spreading to other cities. In Texas, two separate incidents involving fires at ICE facilities have drawn significant attention, and ten individuals were charged with attempted murder related to previous events.
The Department of Homeland Security has yet to respond to inquiries concerning these allegations. Resistance against ICE operations is also growing, with reports of a Milwaukee judge supposedly assisting illegal immigrants evading arrest, along with Democratic Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who shared the names of ICE agents involved in immigration crackdowns.
In New York City, an incident arose on June 18 where Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander and New Jersey Democratic Representative Ramonica McQuiver allegedly assaulted ICE agents during a court operation in Manhattan.