Billboards expressing support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and calling out “liberal hypocrisy” sprung up in several swing states Wednesday as federal law enforcement officers continue to face protests and harassment from anti-ICE activists.
“ICE officers are: fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends,” reads one of the billboards put up by conservative nonprofit Citizens for Sanity in high-traffic commuter routes in Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan.
“Let them do their jobs,” reads another placard, which includes illustrations of ICE agents in tactical gear.
Another billboard reminds the public that “interfering with federal law enforcement operations is a crime.”
“You could go to jail,” the sign warns.
One of the adverts quotes remarks from former President Barack Obama’s days as senator, where he argued, “Americans are right to demand better border security and better enforcement of the immigration laws.”
“Hey liberals, what’s changed?” the sign asks passersby.
Would-be anti-ICE protesters are urged to “think about it” in one of the signs, which claims, “The same people who wanted you to take 10 vaccines now want you to protest ICE.”
“This campaign reminds voters that enforcing the law isn’t partisan, it’s common sense,” Ian Prior, the executive director of Citizens for Sanity, said in a statement.
“ICE officers put their lives on the line to keep communities safe — they deserve support, not obstruction,” Prior argued.
The Citizens for Sanity exec further contends that Americans are “tired of chaos at the border and across the country” and that the left’s “political games” related to ICE are “are unacceptable and unwanted” by swing state voters.
In his second term, President Trump has launched a series of high-profile immigration enforcement operations in Democrat-led cities across the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis.
Trump signaled last week that border czar Tom Homan plans to “de-escalate” the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis following the deaths of two anti-ICE protesters, who were shot by federal law enforcement officers last month.
On Wednesday, Homan announced that 700 federal law enforcement officers would be leaving the Twin Cities, leaving about 2,000 feds in the area.
Public reaction to ICE and Trump immigration crackdowns has been mixed.
An Ipsos poll conducted last Friday and Saturday found 62% Americans believe ICE’s actions were going too far, compared to 13% who said they did not go far enough and 23% who said it was about right.
Meanwhile, a survey from Plymouth Union Public Research – conducted prior to when anti-ICE protester Alex Pretti was shot to death by a Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis – found 57% of voters back Trump’s immigration policies and the same number believe federal law enforcement should be able to make deportation arrests without being impeded or harassed.
