As many of you probably already know, I’m a 68-year-old (almost) American who grew up in Chebanse, Illinois. I know that, to some people, that alone is enough to dismiss anything I have to say about law enforcement or immigration. But here’s what you might not know: I’ve spent the last 46 years working in security and law enforcement, primarily in healthcare environments. I’ve lived this work. I understand what it means to enforce laws you didn’t write but are expected to uphold.

What I’m watching unfold in Minnesota right now; the hostility toward Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement more broadly isn’t organic outrage. It’s manufactured. It’s political theater. And it’s part of a long-running strategy by the political left: when they don’t get their way, or when they see an opportunity to regain power, they throw a public tantrum and aim it squarely at the people wearing the badge.

These protests are a perfect example of misplaced outrage. ICE officers are doing the job Congress created and funded, and if people disagree with immigration enforcement, their frustration belongs with the lawmakers who passed the laws, not the officers enforcing them. Yet instead, elected officials and activists are whipping up hatred against law enforcement while acting as if those laws don’t exist. They expect ICE agents, vastly outnumbered, to stand there while radical leftists yell, scream, spit, throw bricks and bottles, dox them, and make death threats, and somehow just take it. Their lives are repeatedly put at risk, yet they continue to enforce federal law, and that enforcement has correlated with a drop in crime in Minnesota and across the nation. I also find it more than a coincidence that this sudden moral outrage conveniently distracts from serious issues in Minnesota, particularly large-scale fraud involving Somali networks that state leaders would rather not talk about. The governor and the mayor of Minneapolis seem far more interested in managing optics than addressing accountability. Stir up protests, point fingers at ICE, and hope no one notices what’s happening behind the curtain.

What makes all of this especially dishonest is the left’s selective outrage. We’ve been here before, many times.

There were no mass protests when Bill Clinton famously said, “We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws.” His administration deported large numbers of illegal immigrants and passed laws making removals easier. Silence.

There were no riots when Congress established expedited removal in 1996, allowing certain illegal immigrants to be removed without a hearing. Donald Trump wasn’t president then, and the media had no problem with it.

The Obama administration removed over 2.5 million people between 2009 and 2015. Again, no protests. No hysterical media coverage. No accusations of fascism.

So what changed?

The law didn’t change. Enforcement didn’t fundamentally change. What changed is political power.

Now the same politicians who wrote or supported these laws pretend to be shocked that they’re being enforced. Even worse, they are openly threatening to shut down the government and blame ICE for doing exactly what Congress told it to do. That’s not leadership. That’s manipulation.

And none of this would work without the willing cooperation of the so-called mainstream media. Time and again, we’ve seen false narratives pushed without verification, corrections buried or ignored, and outright misinformation framed as “journalism.” Whether it’s falsely claiming ICE raided a school, portraying gang members as innocent victims, or deliberately misrepresenting statements to inflame public emotion, the pattern is the same.

They call it freedom of speech. I call it freedom to lie in service of an agenda.

This isn’t about compassion. It isn’t about fairness. And it certainly isn’t about the rule of law. It’s about power, regaining it, holding it, and punishing anyone who stands in the way, including law enforcement officers who can’t fight back politically.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. But I do hope more Americans are starting to see through the act. Blaming ICE doesn’t change the law. Protests don’t erase statutes. And shutting down the government won’t fix immigration. It will only expose who’s willing to burn the house down to stay in charge.

If we want real change, it starts with honesty, accountability, and the courage to tell the truth, even when it’s inconvenient.