The Democrats’ defiance of President Trump’s effort to enforce immigration laws is shocking — and escalating. A New York congressman, Daniel Goldman, is going so far as to propose arresting federal agents just for doing their jobs. It calls to mind the worst excesses of the “massive resistance” campaign that arose in the segregation-era South as lawmakers tried to thwart federally mandated efforts to, say, integrate public schools.Those efforts some six decades ago encompassed Virginia’s decision to shutter public schools rather than allow racially mixed enrollment. Governor George Wallace’s so-called stand in the schoolhouse door sought to block black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama. At Little Rock, Arkansas, Governor Orval Faubus refused to comply with a federal court order to integrate a local high school. Ike had to send in federal troops.Segregationists like Wallace and Faubus, though, never dared to attempt the arrest of agents of the federal government who had been deployed to enforce the law of the land. Today’s Democrats are less inhibited, it seems. Mr. Goldman, who represents a district at Brooklyn, is urging New York City’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, to get ready to put federal immigration officials in handcuffs for what he calls “outrageous and unlawful conduct.”Mr. Goldman wants Ms. Tisch to patrol the behavior of Homeland Security officials from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In a letter to Ms. Tisch, he contends that “in cities around the country” these federales, tasked by President Trump with enforcing federal law as it relates to immigration, have been “violently and improperly arresting United States citizens.”Mr. Goldman, apparently doubting the professionalism of these officials, wants New York’s Finest to “be prepared to strictly enforce state and local laws in order to hold federal agents accountable for any unlawful actions they engage in.” That could encompass, as he puts it, “arrest and prosecution for felony violations.” Mr. Goldman’s idea of having local police interfere with federal law enforcement, though, would seem to run afoul of the Constitution.That’s because the parchment, in Article VI, ordains that “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof…” amount to “the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” That limits the ability of states to override Uncle Sam. Yet the Democrats want to plunge ahead nonetheless.Feature, say, legislation introduced by Congressman Shri Thanedar of Michigan proposing to remove ICE agents’ “qualified immunity.” That’s legal jargon for the shield that protects police from nuisance lawsuits and other harassment when the officers are doing their jobs. Mr. Thanedar, griping about ICE’s “aggressive enforcement tactics,” wants to hold individual agents “accountable” by exposing them to potential “legal action.”A similar strategy is afoot by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who wants the public “to submit photos, videos and other documentation of federal immigration operations,” Reuters reports, for her to “review.” That suggests she, too, is looking to meddle with federal agents’ efforts to enforce the laws. “Every New Yorker has the right to live without fear or intimidation,” Ms. James says. The same, we’d add, goes for federal agents doing their jobs.The Sun is not indifferent to abuse by immigration agents or any other authority. Yet Democrats are making hay of occasional mistakes by ICE in its assignment to tackle the crisis of open borders and above 10 million illegals residing here. The Democrats appear less concerned with due process than with resisting Mr. Trump by thwarting his obligation to take care that the immigration and other laws be faithfully executed.
