#new A Democrat Senator got pepper sprayed while trying to reason with his far-left base during an anti-ICE riot outside of a detention facility in New Jersey
Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) inserted himself into a chaotic scene outside Delaney Hall detention center.
Kim tried “negotiating” with both ICE officers and the anti-ICE agitators who were blocking the facility.
Federal agents eventually forced their way through, deploying pepper spray and pepper balls that hit the senator.
He later said his eyes were burning and he had trouble breathing as medics washed them out.
Details:
Riots erupted days earlier after hundreds of detainees went on a hunger strike over alleged conditions inside the facility
ICE and DHS officials said the hunger strike was nothing more than a publicity stunt, detainees get three meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, and toiletries.
Kim and other New Jersey Democrats, including Gov. Mikie Sherrill, showed up to join the anti-ICE agitators.
That’s when Kim stood in between the agitators and ICE agents.
Agitators were blocking entrances and federal vehicles with makeshift walls, cinder blocks, and anything they could find – so ICE agents used pepper spray, pepper balls, and rubber bullets to clear the area.
Kim got caught in the spray.
“I tried to do whatever I could, standing in the middle, to keep people safe.”
“Agents were shooting at us with pepper balls and using pepper spray.”
“Right now I’m trying to have them not point guns at us.”
Videos show Kim in the crowd, then getting sprayed and needing his eyes flushed.
Kim has long pushed hard against ICE and Trump-era immigration enforcement.
He has introduced bills to cut funding and shut down ICE facilities, has repeatedly called conditions “inhumane” and has accused the administration of “cruelty and lawlessness.”
Critics say this fits a pattern of Democrats pandering to their far-left base that wants to abolish ICE, adding they should all be arrested for obstructing federal law enforcement agents, who are doing their job of detaining illegal migrants.
