Rivaling Newsmax’s Steve Malzberg, who yesterday managed to link the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, to Hamas, on his talk show on Tuesday Steve Deace linked the shooting of Michael Brown and the ensuing protests to what he sees as lax enforcement of immigration laws.
Deace cited the announcement that 22 Iowa county sheriffs are refusing to hold federal immigration detainees without a court order as evidence that local governments are “creating lawlessness.” This, he implied, could cause rioting if a released undocumented immigrant committed a murder, as people “take the law into their own hands,” causing law enforcement to “militarize up.”
This culture of “lawlessness,” he implies, was responsible if not for the murder of Brown, then at least for the ensuing protests and violence.
Deace, of course, was a supporter of the lawless militia groups at the Bundy ranch, who believe that local sheriffs should be free to ignore federal laws with which they disagree.
Here in my hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, we’ve got 22 Iowa county jails that have announced today — including their sheriffs — that they are just not going to enforce the immigration law, they’re just not going to do it. That if the fed’s come in and say, hey, we want you to hold people we suspect are here illegally, they won’t do it, they refuse, we’re just not going to do it. And the sheriffs have said we’re not going to punish people who are here in the country illegally. So, again, we’re creating lawlessness.
So, let’s create a hypothetical situation here that’s not that far-fetched. Let’s assume that one of these illegals in this county goes on a murderous rampage and it could have been prevented if he had been deported and you’re in a position where people are — again, I’m not advocating this, I’m not justifying it, I’m just telling you, Michael, this is what happens when the rule of law is not upheld, people will sooner or later start taking the law into their own hands.
And when they start taking the law into their own hands, then the government will come along and say, that’s why we’ve got to militarize up because you’ve got this, that means we’ve got to have that, and on and on the escalation goes. And it’s because we’ve exceeded these spheres of authority. Who knows if that would have stopped what happened to Michael Brown. I’ve got to believe it might have stopped six consecutive nights of rioting and looting, however, had we known that.
