Attacks on ICE agents are outrageous and unwarranted — which is why it’s good to see federal agents going after the anti-ICE ringleaders.

On Wednesday morning, as The California Post reported, federal agents swooped in on Leo Martinez, who allegedly tried last year to stop ICE from arresting an illegal immigrant (and registered sex offender) from Mexico.

Martinez denied starting an altercation with ICE agents, complaining that they had rammed his car. But he admitted to following them around, trying to track their activities, with the overall goal of making it harder for them to do their jobs.

The men and women of ICE — and Border Patrol, and other immigration law enforcement agencies — are just trying to do their job, which is to enforce laws passed by both parties in Congress.

ICE agents are part of the reason crime is going down in California and across the nation.

They are members of our community — neighbors, parents at school, fellow churchgoers. They are among the best Americans, standing up to protect our country, often at great risk to themselves.

The work they do is urgent, legal, and necessary. 

No country can exist for long if it has an open border. And border enforcement doesn’t just happen at an imaginary line on the map.

Some migrants manage to sneak across, with the help of smuggling cartels. And some who arrive on tourist or work permits stay after their visas expire.

That’s why we have interior enforcement, like every other country. If ICE didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it — which is why calls to “abolish” the agency are so absurd.

Democrats and the media have whipped up fears of ICE to the point of blinding hatred. That is why ICE agents often have to wear masks.

Politicians pretend nothing would happen to ICE agents if they would just remove their masks.

They know better.

The Democrats in the gubernatorial debate have used ICE agents as punching bags, threatening to arrest them — as if the courts had not already ruled that California has no such power under the constitution.

That’s the U.S. Constitution — you know, what all of these candidates are going to have to swear to uphold, if they win. 

Well done to the Trump administration — not just for defending ICE, but for going after the anti-ICE activists. 

If you don’t like immigration policy, change it in Congress. Not in the streets.

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