The bystanders, two women, who questioned the ICE agents and stood between them and their target outside the general district court Tuesday also wore face masks. ICE says the pair will face federal obstruction charges.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office intends to prosecute those individuals,” ICE said.
Brian McGinn, the spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia, had nothing to add.
“We cannot confirm or deny the existence of an ongoing investigation,” he told The Daily Progress.
The two women appear to be volunteers with the Immigration Rapid Response Hotline, a public service promoted by several civil rights and immigrant support groups. A witness to the Tuesday raid told The Daily Progress that the hotline had been called when the ICE agents were spotted.
They are and they aren’t. If they’re anything like Guatemala’s paramilitaries then the individuals push so they can have an excuse to beat your ass. The leadership themselves aren’t quite as brazen and aren’t intentionally aiming for that but at the same time they’ll be looking the other way if things do reach that point and their grunts go wild.