‘Pure anarchy’: Acting ICE director describes what his ‘brave men and women’ in LA are ‘dealing with’

Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons appeared on “Hannity” Thursday to describe how officials in Los Angeles are having to wear riot gear and tactical kits due to the “pure anarchy” in the city streets.

Protests and riots broke out in Los Angeles on Friday after ICE made arrests throughout the city, leading to rioters burning cars, vandalizing buildings, and looting stores. While on Fox News, host Sean Hannity listed some of the backgrounds of the criminal migrants arrested by ICE. The rioters, Hannity said, were protecting people convicted of homicide, burglary, and other “extensive” crimes.

“That list right there, like you said, you can keep going. That’s what frustrates all of us is the fact that what started this whole thing was ICE conducting a federal law enforcement operation that involved us serving a criminal search warrant and arrest warrant on immigration violations,” Lyons said.

“We have federal officers being surrounded in the thousands inside a federal building. We have to launch other federal SWAT and special operations teams to rescue them,” Lyons added. “We actually have senior leaders having to don riot gear and tactical kit, launching tear gas themselves to protect themselves because they’re being overrun in their positions. That shouldn’t happen in an American city, especially to sworn law enforcement officers that are out there arresting these individuals that just you listed.”

While riots continued over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guard members to the city as Democratic leaders continued to downplay the severity of the destruction.

Trump additionally sent 700 Marines to protect the federal building ahead of upcoming protests.

WATCH:

In response to the riots, the Department of Homeland Security released the backgrounds of some of the illegal migrants arrested, which included criminal histories involving second-degree murder, willful cruelty to a child, and domestic violence.

“I’m actually out here in L.A. I’ve been on the ground since Saturday with the folks seeing this stuff firsthand. What I can tell you is it’s pure anarchy,” Lyons said. “When you have elected leaders saying that it’s peaceful and as long as you dodge the burnt cars or no one’s been shot, no one’s been hit in the head, that’s totally wrong.”

“I can tell you from firsthand experience what the brave men and women of ICE, the brave men and women of the Department of Justice, all our federal partners, and the brave men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department have been dealing with day in, all night long. It’s bad out here,” Lyons added. “To think that all we’re trying to do is our law enforcement mission, and we have to deal with this. It’s just so un-American on so many different scales.”

U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer is set to hear California’s argument in their bid to block the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles.

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