A drunk-driving Rhode Island state representative called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents Nazis after the arrest of a confessed MS-13 terror gang member whom the politician called a “neighbor.”
Enrique Sanchez, who represents Providence in the state’s House, slammed the agents on X, apparently unaware just whom he was defending.
Sanchez’s incendiary comment is of a piece with those of other far-left Democrats who have accused ICE agents of Nazi or Gestapo tactics. Such labeling, federal authorities say, is the reason agents are facing a more-than 800-percent increase in assaults.
Arrest and Reaction
The occasion of Sanchez’s deranged outburst was ICE’s arrest of a cultural enricher named Ivan Rene Mendoza Meza. The 27-year-old Honduran illegal is, again, an MS-13 terror gang member. Fox News reported:
ICE sources told Fox News that during the operation, Mendoza attempted to flee, causing a crash by striking ICE vehicles before running into his apartment. He was eventually surrounded and surrendered to agents.
Mendoza was seen smirking in his arrest photo, seeming to be unfazed by his capture.
Mendoza has a history of criminal activity, including fentanyl trafficking charges in Rhode Island. ICE Boston had previously lodged an immigration detainer against him following those charges in August 2023. However, the 6th District Court of Rhode Island declined to honor the detainer, releasing Mendoza without notifying ICE, forcing agents to locate and arrest him in the community.
None of this bothered Sanchez.
“The Nazi Gestapo ICE thugs kidnapped another of our neighbor in Providence this morning,” he wrote on X:
This time on Alverson st.
The ICE thugs damaged a couple cars that belonged to residents as well. They think they are above the law. I strongly condemn this act of terror and will be demanding answers and seeking action tomorrow. I am tired of this s**t. Providence doesn’t want ICE thugs in our city.
Because they most assuredly don’t want MS-13 thugs “in our city,” normal Providentians likely don’t care about Sanchez’s debilitating fatigue.
Two days later, Sanchez offered this opinion on X over Fox News video of the arrest: “Fox News has nothing better to report on. These people are ridiculous. Gente ridicula.”
Contrary to Sanchez, the Fox report suggests that Mendoza, not ICE, smashed into the cars in the photo attached to Sanchez’s X post.
Similar Comments
Sanchez isn’t the first and won’t be the last far-left Democrat to utter such imprecations, which endanger the lives of ICE and other federal agents.
Indian immigrant and U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington has called ICE agents “terrorists.” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and crackpot Minnesota Governor Tim Walz have likened ICE agents to neo-Nazis and the Gestapo, the secret police in Nazi Germany.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons answered Jayapal.
“An actual Antifa terrorist tried to blow up ICE’s Northwest Processing Center in Rep. Jayapal’s home state of Washington in 2019,” he said:
At the time, she tried to blame the violent attack on rhetoric from the right, in defense of an actual terrorist who tried to murder detainees and employees alike!
Now, she labels ICE officers enforcing immigration law set by Congress “terrorists.” This, at a time when officers are facing a nearly 700% increase in assaults, in part due to the type of rhetoric she spews. Never in a million years did I think I would witness a sitting member of Congress prioritize regard for violent criminals over the law enforcement officers protecting her community from actual public safety threats. The only apology needed is from the congresswoman to the people who voted for her.
No longer is that figure 700 percent, however.
Yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security reported an 830-percent increase since Trump’s inauguration. And those Democrats aren’t just attacking the agents rhetorically, DHS said:
In recent weeks, both the media and politicians have escalated their anti-ICE rhetoric. Democratic members of Congress have been caught red-handed doxing and even physically assaulting ICE officials.
Representative Salud Carbajal of California handed an ICE agent’s business card to rioters during an ICE raid on a marijuana farm in California. After the doxing, the rioters attacked the ICE agent.
Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey faces three felony assault charges for attacking ICE agents at a detention facility in Newark.
Plus, two U.S. senators, Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, have co-sponsored legislation to force ICE agents to dox themselves.
Upshot: Democrats are demonizing ICE and other federal agents, knowing full well they are inviting leftist thugs to attack them.
Drunk-driving Charge
As for Sanchez, he might consider policing himself instead of ICE.
In February, cops stopped Sanchez in Cranston, about 5 miles south of Providence, for drunk driving. He refused a breathalyzer test.
“Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal Magistrate William T. Noonan ordered the 28-year-old Democrat to undergo alcohol treatment and perform 10 hours of community service,” The Providence Journal reported:
He must keep the interlock system on his car for six months.
He was due to appear before Superior Court Magistrate Patrick Burke Friday on the DUI charge, but the matter has now been closed. Often people charged with driving under the influence agree to plead to refusal — a civil charge — in the traffic tribunal and a DUI count is dismissed.
When the cop spotted Sanchez, he was stopped at a red light and didn’t move when it turned green.
The mouthy state representative was “confused,” the newspaper reported, quoting the cop. Indeed, he was so confused that he “tried to hand me a … debit card” instead of identification, the cop said:
Authorities said Sanchez told the officer he was coming from a friend’s house in Central Falls and was on his way home to Providence. The officer told him he was going the wrong way and asked if he knew where he was. He said he missed the highway.
Whether Wrong Way Sanchez was drunk when he called ICE agents “Nazi Gestapo ICE thugs” on X is unknown. Also unknown is whether Sanchez was in history class for the lesson about Nazi Germany.
