Federal agents tore down a banner protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement, only to reveal a dildo that they left sitting in the middle of a Washington, D.C., neighborhood.
President Donald Trump has ordered a federal takeover of D.C., claiming the nation’s capital is one of the “most dangerous cities anywhere in the world” despite official data showing D.C.’s violent crime rate is at its lowest in 30 years.
The administration has deployed hundreds of federal agents to patrol the streets and sent a full SWAT team to arrest a protester who threw a subway sandwich at ICE agents—even after the man’s lawyer said he tried to turn himself in.
Apparently continuing that tough-on-protest posturing, over the weekend, an eight-person ICE patrol briefly paused its crime fighting to destroy a pro-immigration sign in Mount Pleasant, one of the city’s most prominent Latino neighborhoods.
The agency—which paradoxically loves a good photo op so long as its agents’ faces are hidden—posted a video of masked agents cutting down a sign that said, “Chinga La Migra — Mount Pleasant Melts ICE.”
As they removed the banner, a dildo that was perched directly behind it came into view. The ICE video blurred out the dildo, but it’s clearly visible in photos shared online by local public radio journalist Alex Koma.
“We’re taking America back baby,” an agent told the camera while crumpling up the sign to throw in the trash.
He then added in Spanish, “Esto es par America. Los Estados Unidos el número uno. Estamos tornando a traves de nuevo,” or “This is for America. The United States is number one. We are turning things around again.”
As the group walked away, they left the dildo, which they apparently deemed less offensive than the sign that had been covering it.
“ICE is dedicated to removing criminals from American cities, and D.C. is no exception,” ICE captioned the video. “Make D.C. safe again!”
As the Trump administration has raided neighborhoods and job sites as part of the president’s mass deportation drive, “Chinga La Migra” has become a pro-immigrant rallying cry that roughly translates to “F--- ICE.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to ICE for comment.
Besides sending in federal agents, the White House has attempted to take over the city’s police department and install its own “emergency” police chief. Last week, the District of Columbia’s top prosecutor sued the White House for what he called a “hostile” takeover of the city.
The president has justified the takeover by declaring a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C. The nation’s capital, however, does not even rank in the top 30 of the most dangerous U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents, Newsweek reported.
In the meantime, Trump has also threatened to take over other cities with Democratic leadership, even though unlike Washington D.C., those cities are not under the legal control of the federal government.
Besides, a recent analysis by Axios found that 13 of the 20 U.S. cities with the highest murder rates were located in red states, raising questions about how much “liberation” would really take place if Trump swooped in.
