'Rioters injecting violence': Todd Blanche says media 'lying' bout anti-ICE protestors

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche drew widespread scrutiny on Friday after refusing to classify demonstrators gathered outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility as peaceful protesters. Speaking in an interview with News Nation, Blanche addressed President Donald Trump's recent call to investigate the demonstrations, saying that he had committed to the President to get to the bottom of such gatherings, especially how they are funded and the groups organising them.

"They're not peaceful protesters," Blanche said. "When I hear the mainstream media refer to these men and women as 'protesters', they are lying to the American people. They are lying. They are not protesters. They are rioters, injecting violence. They don't even know what they're fighting. They are just cursing and screaming, threatening to kill federal agents," he added. The Acting AG also revealed that government agencies like the FBI and the DHS were focused on stopping such gatherings.

Blanche's comments came after protests against ICE turned violent at the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey. The protests are ongoing due to allegations that detainees inside the center are not being held constitutionally. Several Democrats joined the protest, including Sen. Andy Kim, who was pepper-sprayed in one of the scuffles. However, that has not stopped him from taking steps against the immigration enforcement agency.

Kim announced on Thursday that he introduced an amendment that would hold ICE accountable for the condition of detainees at Delaney Hall. "What I saw over this past week was terrible conditions. We need to make sure that we are holding ICE accountable and Geo Group, which is making millions of dollars off the taxpayers and running facilities like Delaney Hall," he said. Kim also revealed that if the condition of detainees at Delaney Hall did not improve, ICE and Geo Group would not get any more taxpayer dollars for such activities.

Unfortunately for Kim, the Senate passed a $70 billion budget reconciliation package on Friday to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of President Trump's term. The decision has been met with scorn from Democrats, who are reiterating everything that Americans have had to suffer under immigration agencies in recent months. Sen. Patty Murray claimed that ICE agents murdered two Americans in Minnesota: Renee Good and Alex Pretti. "How do Republicans respond? At nearly 5 AM, they passed $70 billion more for ICE, no questions. No reforms. No accountability," she added.

Others questioned redirecting billions of taxpayer dollars to fund immigration agencies at a time when Americans were struggling with the high cost of living were raised by Democrats. "In the middle of a cost-of-living CRISIS, instead of focusing on how to lower your grocery bills, your gas bills, your health care bills, your housing bills, and the millions of other bills you are dealing with, they are focused squarely on passing more and more funding for an out-of-control agency for the remainder of Trump's term," Rep. Mike Levin wrote on X.