This is a bit off topic but also somewhat related. I don’t know if you are following the news of AZ’s AG Kris Mayes, a Democrat. She was on a recent podcast and stated that AZ has a “stand you ground law” one of the most liberal stand your ground laws in the country, passed by the Republicans in the AZ state legislature. She pointed out on the podcast that because of this very liberal law that allows just about anyone who “feels their life threatened” by anyone else, given certain circumstances, they have a right to shoot to kill. She said this is a law that could cause harm to ICE barging into peoples’ homes, masked, no ID, no uniforms, in unmarked cars that could turn into a blood bath if a person, resident of a home, felt threatened. She was issuing a siren call and a warning that people could get killed.
But what happened after her words were spoken? The MAGA republicans in AZ went after her, said she should be impeached and was disgracing our state because she was encouraging people to shoot and kill ICE. It is a lie, she never encouraged anyone to kill ICE or any police or authority. She was stating the law and the consequences of the law in this kind of volatile situation with ICE. They are simply MAGA out of control but she says she will not back down, that her words are correct, that the law can cause people harm and that she was warning of the problems that can occur. This morning in the AZ Daily Star, now the Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs is siding with the MAGA Republicans and telling Mayes that she spoke inappropriately and needs to take back her words.
Imagine that, the Governor thinks Mayes is “inappropriate “ as ICE agents kill citizens on the streets of Minneapolis and as they also are infusing their rogue lawlessness in Tucson and elsewhere.
Yup, I saw that. Absolutely fucking ridiculous that the governor did that. All the AG did was point out a law already on the books. I guess that’s technically a win if she pissed off MAGA and others haha
Blue state governors are not going to protect anyone. They are fully cooperating with ICE and the Project 2025 agenda regardless of what comes out of their filthy, lying mouths. They are corporate, establishment democrats. They sold out long before they got elected which is why they got elected.
While I appreciate your thoughts, I believe blue state governors are acting in good faith, just need to step it up to doing things to actively block these incursions. There may or may not be evidence that local entities are cooperating with the feds outside of legal boundaries. Please bring receipts. We need action at the state level.
How do they have a circular firing squad when they don’t have a majority I think Hakeem Jeffries is doing a pretty good job keeping his people in line.
The problem is the Republicans equating ICE with police officers who are protecting them from some criminal element. Until it comes knocking at their door or in their neighborhoods in some kind of blitz then maybe those repubs in AZ will wake up.
They aren’t police officers. They ARE acting as Terrorists!!!
This is a perfect description - remember AG Bondi telling Minnesota that she will pull back ICE if the State hands over their voter rolls.
The Governor is probably trying to prevent President Trump from invoking the Insurrection Act.
But ICE is acting as a Terrorist Organization as they are operating currently. They can change tactics and operate under the same rules that police use - obeying the United States Constitution.
Oh i’m sure there is trepidation about the insurrection act, but it’s a flimsy excuse. In fact, there are attorneys and DA’ s across the country that know he will try it and they are ready. He can’t just waive his magic wand and claim insurrection act, but these politicians are seemingly held back because of it. We should just rip the band aid off. I just don’t get it.
I am writing to demand clear, public, and immediate action from your office: New Jersey law must be enforced in New Jersey — without exception, without hesitation, and without special immunity for federal immigration or border enforcement personnel.
If any ICE or Border Patrol agent violates N.J.S.A. 2C:38-2 or any other applicable New Jersey criminal statute while operating in this state, they must be investigated and, where the evidence supports it, prosecuted.
A federal badge is not a license to disregard state law, civil rights, or basic legal limits on government power.
Failure to enforce state law in these situations sends a dangerous message — that some armed agents can operate above the law inside our communities.
That erodes public trust, weakens the rule of law, and puts residents at risk. New Jersey cannot claim to value civil rights and public safety while looking the other way when violations are committed by federal personnel.
Your office has both the authority and the responsibility to act. I urge you to:
Issue an explicit public statement that New Jersey criminal laws apply fully to federal agents acting within the state
Direct county prosecutors to treat alleged violations by ICE or Border Patrol agents the same as they would any other suspect
Ensure prompt, independent, and transparent investigations of credible complaints
Pursue charges under N.J.S.A. 2C:38-2 and any other relevant statutes wherever the facts and law support them
No one should be functionally immune from accountability in New Jersey. Equal justice under the law only means something if it is enforced, especially when the alleged misconduct involves government agents with the power to detain, search, and use force.
I expect your office to uphold New Jersey law decisively and without deference to federal pressure or politics.
Now we just have to push harder for the states to enforce their own laws. They need top stop being so afraid of this wannabe mobster and start standing up for their people.
As I’ve watched this situation evolve over the past several months I’m increasingly convinced that two issues are limiting the kind of responses Chris has been advocating. The first is that for all their talk about “solidarity” states (and especially cities) are acting alone. There isn’t much in the way of mutual aid so the regime is able to overwhelm the limited resources of any individual target. It’s pretty easy to feel like David vs. Goliath in such circumstances. The second is all the uncertainty about the limits of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. I’ve seen all sorts of interpretations. While I’m not a lawyer, I think the sheer vagueness of settled legal opinions on all the questions involved make it hard for folks on the front lines to be aggressive.
Combine these two and you get a recipe for exactly the kind of tepid responses to aggression that we’ve all seen. Chris has been vocal in calling for interstate compacts and if we got a few of those with actual teeth (e.g. a willingness to share law enforcement personnel to match ICE’s “surges”) that would help a lot. Some prominent Constitutional scholars offering substantive views on the limits of federal “immunity” that would be likely to hold up in court would help with the second. Even folks in authority don’t want to feel like they’re on an island—especially in high stakes situations. Give them a little better support system and let’s see if we get stronger reaction to the regime’s overreach.
“The first is that for all their talk about “solidarity” states (and especially cities) are acting alone.” They could always pick up a phone and call another Governor for assistance.
Exactly. Cities, counties, states, can and do use mutual aid for Fire and law enforcement (and emergencies such as earthquakes, floods, etc..) so it seems this falls under law enforcement so Police Officers and National Guard could be shared.
I take the above comment back back. As I thought more, yes, mutual aid but not for “combat” which is essentially what a police force could be up against if/when trying to arrest ICE for illegal acts. Seems police union contracts would not allow for that sort of mutual aid. National Guard are called for national security by the feds and for emergency help by states. They do not have law enforcement powers. Seems states may need to form their own “DE-ICE” forces.
Yes, that’s been going on for over a year now. They’re also put together a working group on vaccine recommendations. That’s all a good start but needs to go a lot further for truly effective resistance.
State level criminal investigations and charges for federal politicians and agents who commit crimes.
Election defense plans
State and interstate replacements for SSI/Medicaid to preempt Republican attacks on them along with interstate healthcare solutions
Vaccine recommendedations are important but I'd say don't really solve the dozens of coexisting corruption and authoritarian consolidation crisis we now face.
Our nation is barreling towards self destruction and it seems dangerous to wait an entire additional year to MAYBE protect economic stability, social safety nets, and hold people accountable for openly committing crimes.
I agree with you. I'm reasonably comfortable that these things are happening. Probably not fast enough, but I'm at a loss as to what else I can do. The governor and AG do not disagree that they can't wait. I'm a bit of a pest to them.
I’m very much with Chris on this and certainly agree with his comments. I’d add a couple more.
The first is something akin to NATO’s Article 5 (an attack on one is an attack on all). Blue states need to be able to match the manpower and firepower of ICE. As we’ve witnessed, dropping 2,000 heavily armed thugs into a city will overwhelm any police force. While Chris has rightfully called for vigorous prosecution of these miscreants, laws aren’t self-enforcing. We need to be able to deploy a rapid response group into any city ICE invades that is just as well armed and will shadow these vandals wherever they go. When they commit atrocities, there has to be someone handy who has sufficient compulsive force to be able to arrest them on the spot and secure the crime scene pending investigation by the local authorities. More than a dozen states have authorizing legislation for what are in essence 2nd Amendment publicly regulated militias. Two of those states are California and Virginia. How about building up a reservoir of properly equipped, trained, and led defense forces that could be deployed to any locality requesting support? Longer term, of course, all the blue states need to pass the same legislation and raise their own groups, but for now, let’s use what’s available.
Second is that we have to develop a means of ensuring this kind of thing can never happen again. In other columns, Chris has called for “trigger legislation” that would end the automatic flow to tax dollars from state residents to the IRS under clearly defined circumstances. We know that blue states (more properly, big cities and their suburbs) represent the bulk of the US economy. Congress can appropriate all the money it wants to build a secret police force but if the head of DHS has to go hat in hand to the governors of individual states to collect the actual dollars needed, we can just about guarantee it will never happen. That’s how you restrain an overbearing federal government over the long term. We need model legislation that the states involved can use as a guide for their respective legislatures and that language should be developed collaboratively between the affected parties.
This is great Chris! Note that the AG info for WA State in your footnotes is outdated. The email is generic so probably works. I listened to a Zoom call today with the WA Gov and AG (thanks for the link Gladys!) and they echoed a lot of the same points they made in their Jan 26 press conference. No question that the current AG is as aggressive in pushback as Ferguson was during T1. They are appropriately reluctant to respond in any detail to questions about how WA would respond to ICE unlawful and murderous actions...as the Gov said, they don't want to give the T regime any insights into their plans but they seem to be thinking ahead to worst case scenarios to be prepared.
Until the ICE agents that committed murder and were accomplices are arrested, every ICE agent is a suspect and should be arrested and sent to Minneapolis to be interrogated by the MN AG.
Send this to your states AG, unfortunately with AG James of NY it is thru a web portal so I sent it to my local and state legislature and have them share with the AG and Gov. Also just a suggestion, when reaching out to your local or state reps, and you speak with someone from their respective offices, get the name and email of that person and send it to them as well, because the more eyes one things we send the better and this way we force them to be part of the solution on how we need to get things done.
Correction to WA state info: Bob Ferguson is currently our governor, not the AG. Nick Brown is the current AG. I'll be copying and sending this post to both! Thank you Christopher Armitage.
Thank you again, Chris, for clarity and making it easy for us to contact government officials. I contacted CA AG Bonta and am sending "Soft Secession" to blue and purple state governors.
Appreciate you stepping up and helping make it happen. We need to be numerous, effective, and persistent. You are an important part of that equation, Anne 🌲 🌲 🌲
Statute: Minn. Stat. § 609.714 (Terroristic Threats). Minnesota makes it a crime to threaten violence when the purpose is to terrorize people or cause serious public disruption. Prosecutors can combine these charges with assault and civil rights laws.
This is a bit off topic but also somewhat related. I don’t know if you are following the news of AZ’s AG Kris Mayes, a Democrat. She was on a recent podcast and stated that AZ has a “stand you ground law” one of the most liberal stand your ground laws in the country, passed by the Republicans in the AZ state legislature. She pointed out on the podcast that because of this very liberal law that allows just about anyone who “feels their life threatened” by anyone else, given certain circumstances, they have a right to shoot to kill. She said this is a law that could cause harm to ICE barging into peoples’ homes, masked, no ID, no uniforms, in unmarked cars that could turn into a blood bath if a person, resident of a home, felt threatened. She was issuing a siren call and a warning that people could get killed.
But what happened after her words were spoken? The MAGA republicans in AZ went after her, said she should be impeached and was disgracing our state because she was encouraging people to shoot and kill ICE. It is a lie, she never encouraged anyone to kill ICE or any police or authority. She was stating the law and the consequences of the law in this kind of volatile situation with ICE. They are simply MAGA out of control but she says she will not back down, that her words are correct, that the law can cause people harm and that she was warning of the problems that can occur. This morning in the AZ Daily Star, now the Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs is siding with the MAGA Republicans and telling Mayes that she spoke inappropriately and needs to take back her words.
Imagine that, the Governor thinks Mayes is “inappropriate “ as ICE agents kill citizens on the streets of Minneapolis and as they also are infusing their rogue lawlessness in Tucson and elsewhere.
Endless double standards
Yup, I saw that. Absolutely fucking ridiculous that the governor did that. All the AG did was point out a law already on the books. I guess that’s technically a win if she pissed off MAGA and others haha
Blue state governors are not going to protect anyone. They are fully cooperating with ICE and the Project 2025 agenda regardless of what comes out of their filthy, lying mouths. They are corporate, establishment democrats. They sold out long before they got elected which is why they got elected.
Some mayors seem to be stepping up though. Also some state attorneys general.
Cataclysmic Collapse Collaborators
Not true, some are fighting mad.
While I appreciate your thoughts, I believe blue state governors are acting in good faith, just need to step it up to doing things to actively block these incursions. There may or may not be evidence that local entities are cooperating with the feds outside of legal boundaries. Please bring receipts. We need action at the state level.
Yet another example of a Democratic circular firing squad.
How do they have a circular firing squad when they don’t have a majority I think Hakeem Jeffries is doing a pretty good job keeping his people in line.
How so?
Democratic infighting!
The problem is the Republicans equating ICE with police officers who are protecting them from some criminal element. Until it comes knocking at their door or in their neighborhoods in some kind of blitz then maybe those repubs in AZ will wake up.
They aren’t police officers. They ARE acting as Terrorists!!!
This is a perfect description - remember AG Bondi telling Minnesota that she will pull back ICE if the State hands over their voter rolls.
The Governor is probably trying to prevent President Trump from invoking the Insurrection Act.
But ICE is acting as a Terrorist Organization as they are operating currently. They can change tactics and operate under the same rules that police use - obeying the United States Constitution.
Oh i’m sure there is trepidation about the insurrection act, but it’s a flimsy excuse. In fact, there are attorneys and DA’ s across the country that know he will try it and they are ready. He can’t just waive his magic wand and claim insurrection act, but these politicians are seemingly held back because of it. We should just rip the band aid off. I just don’t get it.
I think there is some truth to that. And the element of racism.
Have sent the following letter to my AG
I am writing to demand clear, public, and immediate action from your office: New Jersey law must be enforced in New Jersey — without exception, without hesitation, and without special immunity for federal immigration or border enforcement personnel.
If any ICE or Border Patrol agent violates N.J.S.A. 2C:38-2 or any other applicable New Jersey criminal statute while operating in this state, they must be investigated and, where the evidence supports it, prosecuted.
A federal badge is not a license to disregard state law, civil rights, or basic legal limits on government power.
Failure to enforce state law in these situations sends a dangerous message — that some armed agents can operate above the law inside our communities.
That erodes public trust, weakens the rule of law, and puts residents at risk. New Jersey cannot claim to value civil rights and public safety while looking the other way when violations are committed by federal personnel.
Your office has both the authority and the responsibility to act. I urge you to:
Issue an explicit public statement that New Jersey criminal laws apply fully to federal agents acting within the state
Direct county prosecutors to treat alleged violations by ICE or Border Patrol agents the same as they would any other suspect
Ensure prompt, independent, and transparent investigations of credible complaints
Pursue charges under N.J.S.A. 2C:38-2 and any other relevant statutes wherever the facts and law support them
No one should be functionally immune from accountability in New Jersey. Equal justice under the law only means something if it is enforced, especially when the alleged misconduct involves government agents with the power to detain, search, and use force.
I expect your office to uphold New Jersey law decisively and without deference to federal pressure or politics.
Sincerely,
Mike Gelt, would you mind if I used your letter for my AG? It’s terrific: precise forceful.
And once again Christopher Armitage you hit
the center of the target.🎯
Appreciate it and more importantly thank you for contacting your AGs !
I have used a version of that letter and sent to CA AG Bonta. He is already on it. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-leads-amicus-brief-challenging-militarized-and-illegal
Going to court is great and necessary, but I don’t see anything that says he will use his states laws to arrest and and prosecute - unless I missed it
Thanks Mike, for double checking-I appreciate this! This will make it more clear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IZYPhW7BFA
That’s great, but I will believe it when I see any state take action -until then it’s just talk
OK we’ll keep our eyes and ears open and ready to hopefully receive some good news.
I've already sent my official letter, but may I use this as a post to my AG's Substack?
Sure thanks for asking just put in your states law
I’m in Camden Co, NJ. I’ll be sending similar message to AG Jennifer Davenport & getting my grassroots group to do the same. Thanks!
Please do!!
Awesome!
Now we just have to push harder for the states to enforce their own laws. They need top stop being so afraid of this wannabe mobster and start standing up for their people.
Christopher finds where the gold is buried
Engage.
As I’ve watched this situation evolve over the past several months I’m increasingly convinced that two issues are limiting the kind of responses Chris has been advocating. The first is that for all their talk about “solidarity” states (and especially cities) are acting alone. There isn’t much in the way of mutual aid so the regime is able to overwhelm the limited resources of any individual target. It’s pretty easy to feel like David vs. Goliath in such circumstances. The second is all the uncertainty about the limits of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. I’ve seen all sorts of interpretations. While I’m not a lawyer, I think the sheer vagueness of settled legal opinions on all the questions involved make it hard for folks on the front lines to be aggressive.
Combine these two and you get a recipe for exactly the kind of tepid responses to aggression that we’ve all seen. Chris has been vocal in calling for interstate compacts and if we got a few of those with actual teeth (e.g. a willingness to share law enforcement personnel to match ICE’s “surges”) that would help a lot. Some prominent Constitutional scholars offering substantive views on the limits of federal “immunity” that would be likely to hold up in court would help with the second. Even folks in authority don’t want to feel like they’re on an island—especially in high stakes situations. Give them a little better support system and let’s see if we get stronger reaction to the regime’s overreach.
“The first is that for all their talk about “solidarity” states (and especially cities) are acting alone.” They could always pick up a phone and call another Governor for assistance.
Exactly. Cities, counties, states, can and do use mutual aid for Fire and law enforcement (and emergencies such as earthquakes, floods, etc..) so it seems this falls under law enforcement so Police Officers and National Guard could be shared.
I take the above comment back back. As I thought more, yes, mutual aid but not for “combat” which is essentially what a police force could be up against if/when trying to arrest ICE for illegal acts. Seems police union contracts would not allow for that sort of mutual aid. National Guard are called for national security by the feds and for emergency help by states. They do not have law enforcement powers. Seems states may need to form their own “DE-ICE” forces.
The states Attorneys General and Governors coordinate lawsuits and plans frequently.
Yes, that’s been going on for over a year now. They’re also put together a working group on vaccine recommendations. That’s all a good start but needs to go a lot further for truly effective resistance.
What would you have them do that they aren't already doing?
State level criminal investigations and charges for federal politicians and agents who commit crimes.
Election defense plans
State and interstate replacements for SSI/Medicaid to preempt Republican attacks on them along with interstate healthcare solutions
Vaccine recommendedations are important but I'd say don't really solve the dozens of coexisting corruption and authoritarian consolidation crisis we now face.
Our nation is barreling towards self destruction and it seems dangerous to wait an entire additional year to MAYBE protect economic stability, social safety nets, and hold people accountable for openly committing crimes.
I agree with you. I'm reasonably comfortable that these things are happening. Probably not fast enough, but I'm at a loss as to what else I can do. The governor and AG do not disagree that they can't wait. I'm a bit of a pest to them.
You’ll appreciate this effort by Philly DA Larry Krasner & other DAs as a baby step. Your proposal needs to be pushed to the state AGs as Mike Gelt has done. https://www.phillyvoice.com/fafo-district-attorney-coalition-ice-trump/
I’m very much with Chris on this and certainly agree with his comments. I’d add a couple more.
The first is something akin to NATO’s Article 5 (an attack on one is an attack on all). Blue states need to be able to match the manpower and firepower of ICE. As we’ve witnessed, dropping 2,000 heavily armed thugs into a city will overwhelm any police force. While Chris has rightfully called for vigorous prosecution of these miscreants, laws aren’t self-enforcing. We need to be able to deploy a rapid response group into any city ICE invades that is just as well armed and will shadow these vandals wherever they go. When they commit atrocities, there has to be someone handy who has sufficient compulsive force to be able to arrest them on the spot and secure the crime scene pending investigation by the local authorities. More than a dozen states have authorizing legislation for what are in essence 2nd Amendment publicly regulated militias. Two of those states are California and Virginia. How about building up a reservoir of properly equipped, trained, and led defense forces that could be deployed to any locality requesting support? Longer term, of course, all the blue states need to pass the same legislation and raise their own groups, but for now, let’s use what’s available.
Second is that we have to develop a means of ensuring this kind of thing can never happen again. In other columns, Chris has called for “trigger legislation” that would end the automatic flow to tax dollars from state residents to the IRS under clearly defined circumstances. We know that blue states (more properly, big cities and their suburbs) represent the bulk of the US economy. Congress can appropriate all the money it wants to build a secret police force but if the head of DHS has to go hat in hand to the governors of individual states to collect the actual dollars needed, we can just about guarantee it will never happen. That’s how you restrain an overbearing federal government over the long term. We need model legislation that the states involved can use as a guide for their respective legislatures and that language should be developed collaboratively between the affected parties.
I’m not an expert in this sort of thing but I think that doing anything of substance would require some sort of formal agreement.
Thank you!
This is great Chris! Note that the AG info for WA State in your footnotes is outdated. The email is generic so probably works. I listened to a Zoom call today with the WA Gov and AG (thanks for the link Gladys!) and they echoed a lot of the same points they made in their Jan 26 press conference. No question that the current AG is as aggressive in pushback as Ferguson was during T1. They are appropriately reluctant to respond in any detail to questions about how WA would respond to ICE unlawful and murderous actions...as the Gov said, they don't want to give the T regime any insights into their plans but they seem to be thinking ahead to worst case scenarios to be prepared.
Since Stephen Miller is driving a lot of this criminal behavior ICE is committing, could he be charged as an accomplice?
Absolutely.
And what Miller is doing falls outside of his responsibilities in his position description. He cannot claim to be acting in any official capacity.
"Nowhere in the text does the law ask **who** committed the crime. It asks **what they did and why**."
Sounds like State terrorism law states ICE as terrorists...
Until the ICE agents that committed murder and were accomplices are arrested, every ICE agent is a suspect and should be arrested and sent to Minneapolis to be interrogated by the MN AG.
Send this to your states AG, unfortunately with AG James of NY it is thru a web portal so I sent it to my local and state legislature and have them share with the AG and Gov. Also just a suggestion, when reaching out to your local or state reps, and you speak with someone from their respective offices, get the name and email of that person and send it to them as well, because the more eyes one things we send the better and this way we force them to be part of the solution on how we need to get things done.
Correction to WA state info: Bob Ferguson is currently our governor, not the AG. Nick Brown is the current AG. I'll be copying and sending this post to both! Thank you Christopher Armitage.
Thank you again, Chris, for clarity and making it easy for us to contact government officials. I contacted CA AG Bonta and am sending "Soft Secession" to blue and purple state governors.
Appreciate you stepping up and helping make it happen. We need to be numerous, effective, and persistent. You are an important part of that equation, Anne 🌲 🌲 🌲
Arrest and prosecute the murderous thugs with masks and guns. Send them to prison. Don’t let George Floyd die in vain.
Minnesota statue
Statute: Minn. Stat. § 609.714 (Terroristic Threats). Minnesota makes it a crime to threaten violence when the purpose is to terrorize people or cause serious public disruption. Prosecutors can combine these charges with assault and civil rights laws.
If it looks like terrorism, if it smells like terrorism, if it feels like terrorism…hmmmm. Maybe it is terrorism???
But it’s crazy hard to grasp - because the terrorists ARE FROM OUR OWN GOVERNMENT and they are attacking CITIZENS ON THE STREET.