{"id":42883,"date":"2025-07-25T14:13:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T21:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=42883"},"modified":"2025-07-25T14:13:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T21:13:46","slug":"feds-make-it-a-crime-to-give-ppe-to-ice-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/25\/feds-make-it-a-crime-to-give-ppe-to-ice-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"FEDS MAKE IT A CRIME TO GIVE PPE TO ICE PROTESTERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Trump administration is trying to criminalize activism like identifying masked immigration agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Akela Lacy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 23 2025 (theintercept.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"LOS<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Protesters confront masked ICE agents outside of a federal building and ICE detention center on June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. Photo: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SPEAKING ON FOX<\/strong> News last week, a top official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency was expanding its dragnet for arrests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we all know that criminals tend to hang out with criminals,\u201d ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan said. \u201cAnd so when we start to build a case, we\u2019re going to be going after everyone that\u2019s around them. Because these criminals tend to hang out with like-minded people who also happen to be criminals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pledge to broaden arrests came as an immigration sweep that sowed fear across the Los Angeles area has been met by a growing protest movement<\/a> to stop the raids and arrests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis appears to be a targeted, political attack on resistance to a military incursion on our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In addition to arresting hundreds of immigrants across Southern California, the government is targeting a mounting number of people who are responding to the raids or helping protests. Some of those targeted have provided supplies to protesters or tried to identify ICE agents conducting raids in masks and plain clothes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Documenting ICE Agents\u2019 Brutal Use of Force in LA Immigration Raids<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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The remarks from Sheahan, the ICE official, came three days after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate ICE raids in LA. In the order, Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong condemned the administration\u2019s use of a person\u2019s characteristics \u2014 like their appearance, accent, or occupation \u2014 as a basis for arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRoving patrols\u201d operating without reasonable suspicion and denying access to lawyers violated the Fourth and the Fifth Amendments, the judge wrote<\/a>. \u201cWhat the federal government would have this Court believe \u2014 in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case \u2014 is that none of this is actually happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now, those accused of helping the anti-ICE movement are facing prosecution or investigation. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury indicted a man after he handed out face shields to people protesting ICE in Los Angeles two days after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alejandro Orellana, 29, pleaded not guilty<\/a> to a charge of conspiracy to aid and abet civil disorders. According to a grand jury indictment, the face shields were \u201cadvertised as designed to protect from chemical splashes and flying debris.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlejandro Orellana\u2019s arrest for distributing supplies is an outrageous violation of civil rights and should be a wakeup call to people everywhere,\u201d said California attorney Thomas Harvey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis appears to be a targeted, political attack on resistance to a military incursion on our communities,\u201d Harvey said. \u201cDistributing supplies to protesters is not a crime. It\u2019s a critical role to help keep people safe \u2014 especially in the face of some of the most violent police repression I\u2019ve seen since the Ferguson uprising.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Orellana\u2019s case, an agent from the FBI made a claim similar to the one the ICE deputy would later make to Fox News \u2014 that it was assigning criminality to people based on assumptions, not on evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agent claimed in an <\/a>affidavit<\/a> that wearing such gear like the face shields, designed to protect against law enforcement using pepper spray or tear gas, \u201cis not common amongst non-violent, peaceful protesters.\u201d Instead, he argued, the face shield was \u201cthe kind of item used by violent agitators to enable them to resist law enforcement and to engage in violence and\/or vandalism during a civil disorder.\u201dRead Our Complete CoverageChilling Dissent<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying Masked ICE Agents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As part of expanding its definitions of criminal activity to include forms of protest responding to ICE, the government ramped up its efforts to investigate people suspected of providing identifying information about ICE agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On July 11, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem released a statement<\/a> condemning \u201canarchists and rioters\u201d in Portland who posted flyers with identifying information about ICE agents and said the department would prosecute \u201cthose who dox ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced a bill that would make identifying ICE officers a federal crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another case in May, ICE agents <\/a>raided the home<\/a> of a family in Irvine, California, on a criminal search warrant. They were investigating the source of flyers that had been posted around LA earlier this year with identifying information about ICE officers. The government suspected the family\u2019s son was responsible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., issued a statement after the May raid saying he was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d with news of the raid and had asked federal law enforcement for more information. Min\u2019s office did not respond to questions about whether they had yet received any such information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Several of the efforts to further criminalize protest flyers or mutual aid have also been used against pro-Palestine student protesters<\/a>, Cop City activists<\/a> in Georgia, and people providing water to migrants<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police charged protesters opposing the construction of the so-called Cop City police training facility with felonies for posting flyers in 2023, The Intercept reported<\/a>. The activists had posted flyers in a neighborhood where a police officer lived, naming him and alleging that he was connected to the killing earlier that year of Manuel \u201cTortuguita\u201d Ter\u00e1n. Police shot Tortuguita 57 times<\/a>, killing the activist during a multiagency raid<\/a> on the Atlanta Forest protest encampment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2023, prosecutors brought charges under Georgia\u2019s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law against 61 activists for their participation in organizing bail funds for Cop City protesters. Prosecutors dropped charges<\/a> against three of the activists last year, and others<\/a> are still awaiting trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a slew of other high-profile cases, elected officials have been arrested for aiding migrants being pursued for arrest<\/a> by ICE agents. Earlier this year, the FBI arrested a judge <\/a>accused of helping a man use an alternate exit from a courtroom when ICE agents were waiting outside the main door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt should be terrifying to every person that the U.S. is ramping up its oppressive tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In Arizona in 2018, prosecutors famously slapped humanitarian volunteers offering food, shelter, and water to migrants in the desert with federal criminal charges<\/a>. Border Patrol targeted their faith-based group as a criminal organization<\/a>. In 2005, activists with the same group faced criminal charges for transporting migrants to receive medical care; the charges were later dismissed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt should be terrifying to every person that the U.S., which has long held political prisoners, is ramping up its oppressive tactics,\u201d said Harvey, the California attorney. \u201cAnd now, with the new funding, ICE will have more money than any policing force in U.S. history to build a gulag system filled with localized versions of \u2018Alligator Alcatrazes\u2019 to cage immigrants and political dissidents.\u201dShare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IT\u2019S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we\u2019re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not hyperbole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet far too many are still covering Trump\u2019s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as \u201cunconventional,\u201d \u201ctesting the boundaries,\u201d and \u201caggressively flexing power.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Akela Lacy<\/a>akela.lacy@theintercept.com<\/a>@akela_lacy<\/a>on X<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is trying to criminalize activism like identifying masked immigration agents. Akela Lacy July 23 2025 (theintercept.com) Protesters confront masked ICE agents outside of a federal building and ICE detention center on June 13, 2025, in Los Angeles. Photo: Spencer Platt\/Getty Images SPEAKING ON FOX News last week, a top… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42884,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42883\/revisions\/42884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}