As a lawyer, your knowledge of laws is far superior to that of the average person. Others like to twist the law to suit their justification. When ICE appeared looking for immigrants in Oregon, who had active asylum cases (and therefore had protections), an immigration lawyer was there to put a stop to it. In fact, she was their attorney. Using her knowledge, she managed to send the ICE agents packing. All it took was a few questions to get them to fold.
In a video shared by TikToker Goodmorningbadnews, an ICE agent is heard asking, “What am I trying to do?” by immigrant lawyer Alicia Beesley. He shoves her way, repeating that she stays arm’s length away, even though she was. Alicia keeps up with her rapid-fire questioning and generally being assertive.
“Next time I’ll take you into custody,” the ICE agent threatens. “I don’t know who you played with in the past, but I’ll take you in.” Contrary to what the ICE agent might think, Alicia isn’t doing anything wrong. She is well within her rights.
The ICE agent keeps up his threat by telling Alicia she’ll be “standing in court” if she violates the law. He even specifies what law he thinks would apply: 18 USC 11. If he feels she’s impeding his progress, his excuse is that law.
Alicia once again reminds the agent she’s at arm’s length and just standing there. “What are you gonna do? Shoot me?” Alicia asks. She then tells the ICE agents the business: since the immigrants have active asylum cases, there’s “nothing wrong with them.” Alicia questions why they’re even trying to round them up.
Another ICE agent nearby dismisses her. “You don’t know what they have,” Alicia challenges. Unwilling to answer her questioning, he tells her their presence is “none of your business.” Dumbfounded, Alicia tells the agent it is her business because she’s their attorney.
“Get the [expletive] out of this apartment,” Alicia shouts. Since the immigrants are there legally, what are they possibly going to do? If it weren’t for Alicia, they likely would have been abducted, as many immigrants and Americans have.
In fact, the first ICE agent Alicia dealt with says at the end of the video, “We’re gonna go arrest other people.” That was always the goal.
One commenter compared the ICE agent to every alcoholic “step dad from any life time movie set” from the 1950s. And yeah, I see it. There’s probably another woman. They’ll band together to bring him down, though. (I bet there’s a Lifetime movie like that already.)
Another took a shot at the agent’s looks, suggesting he looked like a “JD Vance edit” with “big cheeks.”
Others expressed gratitude for her bravery because it takes serious guts to do that and do it confidently. Being a lawyer certainly helps, too. She’s following the law. Why can’t ICE?
