How many cops will be shot before we take left-wing violence seriously? | Opinion
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- Recent attacks on ICE and Border Patrol signal rise in violent leftist extremism.
- Democratic rhetoric and activism risk fueling dangerous confrontations at sites.
- Democrats face pressure to oppose ICE while seeking trust on immigration enforcement.
It was, sadly, only a matter of time before a law enforcement officer got seriously hurt or killed by a leftist extremist driven mad by the second Trump administration.
The scale of what happened July 4 at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center near Fort Worth, should nonetheless shock and alarm us. One Alvarado police officer was hurt, but the plot that federal prosecutors outlined is breathtaking. They allege that 12 people used fireworks and vandalism to draw ICE officers out with the intent to kill them. Perhaps only poor aim and the assailants’ jammed rifle saved the life of the local officer who responded to the scene.
Three days later, a man opened fire on a Border Patrol building in McAllen, resulting in injuries to three people. And authorities were searching for a man who appeared to fire a pistol at federal agents conducting a July 10 raid at a cannabis-growing facility in California, where officers were met by hundreds of protesters.
It’s part of a troubling pattern that doesn’t get nearly enough attention. The far left, fueled by outrage at the actual enforcement of borders and a host of other progressive grievances, is every bit the threat that the far right has been. If anything, with Donald Trump back in the White House, it might be more acute. And yet it gets far less media attention and public denunciation.
To date, it’s been mostly property damaged, not people. Rioters in Los Angeles vandalized buildings and damaged police cruisers and driverless cars. But there were also the killings of two young adults who had the gall to be at a Jewish museum in Washington and the fiery assault on marchers in Boulder, Colorado, raising awareness of Israeli hostages; one elderly woman eventually died of her injuries. Both were perpetrated by men shouting about the Palestinian cause, another leftist favorite.
And last year, a health care executive was murdered on a New York street, an attack hailed by some as a blow against corporate greed.
Rarely is political rhetoric directly to blame for violence. Those who make the leap from protest or political organizing to assault or worse are responsible, not politicians aligned with their side, are to blame for their deeds. The legal bar for when speech rises to incitement is appropriately high.
Democrats and progressive activists, however, have spent a decade warning that Trump (and by extension his followers) threaten everything from democracy itself to good dental hygiene. They have repeatedly suggested that extraordinary responses are required, and while almost none have advocated violence, some have nodded at it or condemned it primarily in terms of the political damage it might do.
Democratic officials interfere with ICE
Consider the theater of Democratic elected officials injecting themselves into ICE operations. It’s a transparent attempt to get arrested, and it says to followers: Things are so bad that I, an elected official, must take this step. What’s a rank-and-file voter to think they should do?
A United States senator even made a spectacle of himself by barging into a news conference and marching up to confront Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. California Sen. Alex Padilla attempted to make his tackling and detention the story, but given the regular threats to government officials, security personnel were justified in blocking him, especially since they almost certainly didn’t know right away who he was.
This may be a case, however, in which the politicians are following the perceived demands of their voters. Several House Democrats recently told the news outlet Axios that their constituents are demanding confrontation over immigration tactics. One even said voters have suggested the lawmakers should be “willing to get shot” at ICE facilities.
That puts elected Democrats in a tight spot. The public clearly wants restrictions on illegal immigration, and permissive border policies under President Joe Biden boosted support for Trump’s crackdown. To have any chance to win power and implement a more moderate solution, Democrats must find a way to convince swing voters that they take the issue seriously — and not just at election time.
Comparisons to the Jan. 6 assault on Capitol, police
Many of these same Democrats regularly decry the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by deluded Trump supporters — noting especially the injuries to brave law officers on the scene. What they don’t seem to understand is that assaulting ICE officers and the innocent local police who sometimes support their operations is just as morally repugnant. Interfering with legitimate enforcement of the law — and deportation is unquestionably that — will turn off far more people than it will energize.
There’s a missed opportunity here, too. Some of the Trump administration’s tactics are extreme, abusive and even un-American. Only the far extremes want total deportation of those here illegally. Hard-working, law-abiding folks — particularly children — shouldn’t be the priority. The right formula is to start with those who are dangerous and those whom the system have already declared worthy of deportation.
But here’s something else people inherently understand: The American door was wide open for four years under Biden, and simply closing it behind the millions who walked in isn’t enough. Enforcement is always meant to send a message to potential law-breakers, too. Harsh penalties on employers would also dry up work opportunities and prevent more arrivals, but Trump’s business buddies have managed to thwart that.
For some on the left, it’s always the 1960s. Any movement that takes to the street is a righteous blow for justice, forever on the ill-defined “right side of history.” They don’t talk as much about the second half of that story — frequent left-wing bombings and other violence that stretched into the early ’70s.
They don’t like that part, because that’s how we got a resurgent Richard Nixon — just as the excesses of progressivism, particularly on immigration, paved the way for Donald Trump.
This story was originally published July 11, 2025 at 5:28 AM.
