U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who moved to make an arrest in an upscale neighborhood of Rochester, New York, were blindsided as a crowd of angry protesters descended on them and vandalized their vehicles, according to WXXI.
"The group shouted 'shame' and 'Gestapo,' and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed," said the report. "One of the roofers was taken into custody, but agents left others apparently unchecked on the rooftop of the Westminster Road rental house."
The crowd in Park Avenue accosting ICE and CBP agents was said to be around 200 people.
Clayton Baker, a local roofing contractor, identified the arrested roofer as "Chino," whom he said had legal authorization to work and had been in the United States for 25 years.
“They took my best worker that's been working with me for 5 years, and just basically, ‘See you later,’ you know? He's a family guy, and he's got a baby on the way. He's never even had a speeding ticket that I know of. He goes to church every Sunday, and he pays his taxes. But you want to come get him off of a hard-working job. It's bulls---, and it's inhumane and it's sad.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, was stunned by the incident.
"Incredible scene in Rochester, NY, where a crowd of almost 100 people surrounded ICE and CBP officers there to arrest someone at a construction site. Someone in the crowd, which appears to be locals, apparently slashed the tires of the Border Patrol car during the protest," he posted to X. "Pretty remarkable scene where you have federal agents driving off with four flat tires after a crowd that size came out to confront them in a fairly wealthy neighborhood!"
Slashing the tires of a federal vehicle, Reichlin-Melnick noted, is a severe crime, "Which is why it's pretty incredible that we are seeing that level of willingness to engage in pretty serious behavior in opposition to immigration enforcement."
