This, exactly. Laws may be overarching, but police priorities vary from city to city. Much like “we’re not wasting our time on pot possession and instead going after grow-ops and meth labs” was VPD’s longstanding policy, local cops can tell ICE “we ain’t stopping you, but if you want backup or assistance, we’ll get there when we have time. Which is never.” The problem is that these cops (the department overall, that is) want to be part of the grand adventure of “Enforcing Order in America” and are ignoring the priorities laid out in their budget.
Unless (and the way ICE is going, I wouldn’t discount this as a possibility) they got told by ICE to remove the protesters before they got run over. I still think the first scenario is the most likely, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the second becomes a headline in the near future.
