Flag defacers bite hand that protects them

The vandals who desecrated the federal Department of Homeland Security flag outside the ICE field office in Burlington had to have put some planning into their juvenile effort, but clearly, very little thought.

“Spotted today at ICE’s Boston Field Office to kick off our #FreeThemAll National Day of Action. Done anonymously, the new flag reads: “ICE Kills. Free Them All.” #FreeThemAll,” one supporter tweeted as the vandalized flag was circulated on social media by groups that have been calling for jails to let detainees go.

Here’s what kills: fentanyl and heroin, two drugs at the heart of the opioid crisis sweeping Massachusetts and the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 69,029 people died of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. between 20182019.

Here’s what the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency does: bust drug traffickers and take their poison off the streets.

Last August, ICE arrested 19 people throughout the state during a four-day operation, targeting illegal immigrants convicted or charged with fentanyl, heroin and other drug trafficking crimes. Many of them had been released from local law enforcement custody into local communities with no notification to ICE.

That was just one of several sweeps netting lethal drugs headed for sale in the region.

One must ask these social justice warriors espousing “free them all” — are deaths from fentanyl and heroin trafficked by illegal immigrants collateral damage in the culture war for open borders?

The blame for the puerile prank doesn’t rest only with the flag defacers. It must be shared by the virtue-signalling sanctuary cities, who broadcast the notion that it’s OK to break the law. In doing so, they imperil their own communities, and the men and women who work to keep them safe.

“Unfortunately, this is typical of those who think they can overturn the rule of law by criminal acts,” said Todd M. Lyons, acting field office director of enforcement and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston.

During the coronavirus pandemic, ICE agents continue to go after drug dealers and murderers from other countries, officials said.

They deserve our gratitude for doing so.

But the progressive set has called for detainee releases in the name of coronavirus safety amid crowded lockup conditions.

“We’re already seeing on our streets, especially in Boston, the dangerous impacts that come from the idea of taking advantage of a health crisis by ‘letting everyone out’ of all detention centers,” Lyons said.

Boston Police Commissioner William Gross has spoken out at the increase in gunplay in the city.

“Violent offenders should not be released to the neighborhoods. … They’re coming back without a reentry program,” Gross said.

But the “free them all” proponents don’t think about the end result — what happens should drug traffickers, rapists, murders, gang members and domestic abusers be let back into the community.

The move to release offenders to keep them safe from the coronavirus is backfiring, according to Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, He said detainees from the Bristol County House of Correction who were released by a federal judge over coronavirus concerns are ignoring house arrest orders.

The flag defacers may think they’ve scored some victory — they haven’t — but if they paused to think about the crucial role ICE plays in their own safety, they should feel ashamed.