The March 14 directive, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, uses an obscure 18th-century law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — to give law enforcement nationwide the power to bypass basic constitutional protections.
According to the memo, agents can break into a home if getting a warrant is “impracticable,” and they don’t need a judge’s approval. Instead, immigration officers can sign their own administrative warrants. The bar for action is low — a “reasonable belief” that someone might be part of a Venezuelan gang is enough.
Thus far these bozos have demonstrated a pattern of showing up without uniforms, with masks on, refusing to identify themselves, show badges, or produce warrants.
This is needless to say an incredibly stupid thing for them to do, especially if they plan to also go around kicking in people’s doors. I personally know an old man who got off the hook for shooting a state cop in my area who tried the same. I think the only hope the Dummkstaffel here has of making a charge stick against a homeowner who blows one of them away will be to somehow make it Federal, because otherwise I think the state courts – especially in blue areas – are not going to treat any warrantless door-kicking by nonuniformed armed men who refuse to identify themselves very kindly.
Edit to add: You’re also not protecting your “property” in such a case, you are protecting your person, which is a very different thing both legally and ethically. If the alternative is that you’re going to be whisked away without due process to a death camp in El Salvador, your only rational course of action is to stand and fight – especially in your own home.
Also, the person may go to jail, but dead is dead. The person shot will be gone, and may make others be more cautious, as hopelessly goulish as that thought is. I hope that things calm down and the rule of law returns before things escalate that far. I don’t recognize the country right now.
Well, that’s pretty much how the entire crime and punishment system is supposed to work. Do the crime, get got for it, others hoping to do the same thing will hopefully think twice before doing so in the future.
Therefore I think it’s completely fair that this script gets flipped on the fascists who are pretending to be “law” enforcement.
It would be federal, because it would be a federal agent getting shot. Any murder of a federal officer–including postal carriers–is a federal crime, in addition to being a state crime. OTOH, remember that a large number of federal judges are not friendly to Herr Fuhrer.
Yes, and also aren’t hordes of these dipshits local cops that Trump is aiming to “deputize” to assist ICE? Those guys are not Federal agents no matter how hard they wish.