A tense exchange on ABCs The View exposed deep confusion and wishful thinking on the left about the legal authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the limits of so?called protest rights.
According to Western Journal, co-host Sunny Hostin asserted on Tuesday that ICE officers have no right to detain or stop a protester who is filming, only to be promptly corrected by fellow panelist Whoopi Goldberg. The clash unfolded as the panel discussed the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE agent after she accelerated her vehicle in close proximity to where the officer was standing.
Hostin framed Goods actions as an exercise of constitutional liberty, suggesting that the incident was fundamentally about free speech and the right to record government agents. She invoked Department of Homeland Security guidance to argue that ICE officers are sharply limited in what they may do to protesters, insisting that Good was simply exercising her First Amendment rights.
At a protest they can approach you. Yeah, if youre obstructing space, they can ask you to move. They can ask you to get back if there is a crime scene. They can ask you to move back. They cannot ask you to stop filming. They cannot touch you. They cannot push you, and they cannot detain you for simply exercising your First Amendment rights, Hostin said. Her comments echoed a broader progressive narrative that treats virtually any confrontation with law enforcement as an attack on civil liberties, even when public safety is at stake.
Goldberg, however, pushed back, pointing out that Hostins absolutist claims do not reflect the law or DHS policy. Yes, they can, Goldberg replied, before reading from what she described as official guidance on ICE authority.
So the rights of ICE agents, according to the Constitutional Law Department of Homeland Security agents can stop, detain, and arrest people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally This is what Im told. Well, we know anybody if you walk up on somebody and theyre arresting your boyfriend. You cannot get in the middle of it, but youre not talking about protesters. Im talking about people agents can stop detain and arrest people they suspect of being in the U.S. illegally. In other words, even in an era of open-borders rhetoric, federal officers still retain the basic power to enforce immigration law and protect themselves in volatile situations.
Outside the television studio, the legal reality is even clearer than Goldbergs on-air correction suggested. ICE agents are explicitly authorized to detain protesters, including U.S. citizens, who physically obstruct or interfere with an immigration enforcement operation, such as blocking the path of an officers vehicle, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Agents may also detain citizens if they interfere with an arrest, assault an officer, or if ICE officers reasonably suspect the person of being in the country illegally. While courts have generally upheld the right of citizens to film law enforcement in public, that right does not extend to using a camera as a shield for obstruction or aggression.
The Good shooting itself underscores how quickly such confrontations can escalate when individuals decide to challenge law enforcement physically rather than lawfully. Footage showed Goods Honda SUV blocking a lane when ICE agents arrived; as one officer exited his vehicle to record her license plate, Goods self-described wife, Rebecca, began filming and confronting him.
When additional agents appeared and ordered Good to exit the vehicle, she instead accelerated, prompting the officer to fire. In a video from the officers perspective, Rebecca appeared to shout drive baby, drive as the agents approached Good, according to the officers footage first released by Alpha News.
Legal experts have already suggested that the use of force will likely be deemed lawful under longstanding precedent. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley noted on Thursday that the shooting would likely be seen as justified if the vehicle is deemed a weapon.
The broader debate, however, goes beyond one tragic incident and a heated TV segment. As progressive commentators continue to blur the line between peaceful protest and physical interference with law enforcement, conservatives have emphasized that constitutional rights do not nullify the rule of law, nor do they strip officers of the authority to defend themselves and carry out their duties.
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