LANSING, MI -- Michigan Republican Party officials were disappointed to find “F*** ICE” written on the side of their headquarters in Lansing this weekend.
Party officials discovered the graffiti Saturday evening and reported the incident to police, said Michigan Republican Party Communications Director Tony Zammit. Cameras captured a person vandalizing the building in the early hours between Friday night and Saturday morning, but Zammit said police can’t identify a suspect based on the footage alone. Police are seeking additional information from the public, he said.
Zammit said the vandalism is considered to be an attack on MIGOP Chair Laura Cox, who is a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Detroit. Cox showed her resolve on Twitter Sunday afternoon, saying the “criminal act by the radical left will not intimidate me or my staff.”
Cox said said she “loved serving the country as an agent” during an April interview with MLive.com. She retired after 13 years, then pursued a political career.
President Donald Trump plans to send federal immigration agents on deportation raids through several major cities, he said Saturday before departing for Camp David. The next day, president threatened to unleash “big deportation” in two weeks if Democrats in Congress don’t agree to changes in asylum law.
“If Congress gave us something quickly on asylum; something quickly on loopholes, where we get rid of the loopholes; the border would be so beautiful,” Trump said Saturday. “But the Democrats just won’t do it. But maybe now they will, because there’s no question you have a national emergency.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a strongly-worded statement condemning the “heartless” raids. Pelosi said they would rip families apart and terrorize communities, urging Trump "to stop this brutal action.”
“Families belong together,” Pelosi said. “These families are hard-working members of our communities and our country. The president’s action makes no distinction between a status violation and committing a serious crime.”
Trump said ICE agents are “fantastic people,” and said his administration is focused on removing gang members and dangerous criminals from the country.
The Washington Post reported that Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, and San Francisco were expected to be targeted in immigration raids starting Sunday. Activists in Detroit braced for ICE agents to sweep their city this weekend, The Detroit News reported.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, joined several House Democrats in calling for ICE to be abolished during the weekend. Tlaib and U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Ayanna Pressley, D-MA, expressed opposition to an emergency border supplemental bill that will provide $1.2 billion in additional funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and $128 million to ICE.
This is not the first time a Michigan Republican Party office was vandalized.
The party’s Garfield Township office near Traverse City was temporarily shut down in November 2018 after a man allegedly made a statement about bombing it. According to the Grand Traverse Sheriff’s Office, police were called to the office for a report of a man who entered the office holding a sign that said “Trump is Satan.”
The Lansing headquarters was also vandalized in the same week. The building was tagged with a statement reading “We will not be erased.”
Zammit said the state party is “disturbed by the repeated attacks,” blaming “radical left” actors opposed to the president’s immigration policies, particularly separating children of undocumented immigrants from their parents. Republicans are facing increased aggression, he said.
“Many of the policies being pursed by federal government were being pursued by (former President Barack) Obama as well, and this type of violence and was not used,” Zammit said.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel also criticized the incident on Twitter. McDaniel formerly led the Michigan GOP.
“Instead of senseless vandalism and rhetoric comparing ICE detention facilities to concentration camps, Democrats should work to secure our border and fix our broken system,” McDaniel wrote Sunday.
Zammit said citizens have the right to purse civil discourse and engage in vigorous public debate, but destroying property is “crossing a line.” He said Republicans are hoping to have the graffiti removed by the end of the week.
“We’re left cleaning up another liberal mess,” Zammit said.