By Dean Maddox, Public Safety & Crime Reporter

Liberals keep saying they “don’t like ICE,” like it’s some edgy moral stance. Let’s quit pretending. They don’t like any law enforcement that actually enforces anything. ICE just happens to be the agency standing between their open-border fantasy and the real world where real people get hurt.

ICE’s mission isn’t new. They’ve been tracking criminals, catching fugitives, and deporting dangerous offenders under Democrat and Republican presidents for decades. The law didn’t change. The screaming did.

And that screaming isn’t about ICE. It’s about hating the very concept of a border and treating enforcement like it is some kind of hate crime.

You don’t have to guess what the real agenda is. They spell it out themselves when the cameras are rolling. Billie Eilish proved that at the Academy Awards when she said, “no one is illegal on stolen land.”

That wasn’t about ICE. That was her admitting the whole point. To them, a country with borders is already illegitimate, so enforcing any law at all feels offensive.

Meanwhile, out here in the real world, we have examples that should make anyone with a pulse stop talking in bumper stickers.

Look at Minneapolis.

ICE had to physically track down Mahad Abdulkadir Yusuf, a Somali sex offender with a long criminal history. His record includes sexual assault on an elderly woman, a past first-degree assault arrest, and an active warrant. Minneapolis and Hennepin County officials ignored ICE detainers, shielded him, and let him walk free around a city full of vulnerable people.

They even tried to block ICE agents when they came to arrest him. ICE finally arrested him at his Lake Street apartment. This is what “sanctuary” looks like in practice. It protects a violent predator instead of the public.

But we are told ICE is the problem.

What liberals call “compassion” is really chaos with better marketing. It is the same energy as protesting every time the police pull someone over for speeding and yelling “fascist” at the guy writing the ticket. The cop isn’t the problem. The behavior is.

Most Americans, including legal immigrants, want an orderly immigration system.

• Let in people with skills we actually need
• Do not admit gang members, criminals, or people carrying dangerous diseases
• Stop cartels from trafficking migrants
• Protect immigrants who come here legally and honestly

None of that is racism. It is common sense.

When you hand the border over to smugglers, you get rape trees, sweatshops, and teenagers forced into situations they never agreed to. Nobody with a conscience should support that system.

But that is where this anti-ICE movement leads. Not to justice. Not to dignity. Just more victims nobody talks about at award shows.

The truth is simple. This is not about ICE. It is about a political movement that no longer believes America has the right to defend its border or its own citizens.

And here is what I think, sitting here with a cigarette burning low and the world looking tired. They have not thought any of this through. They have traded policy for emotion, facts for theatrics, and safety for slogans.

They believe they hold the moral high ground. That high ground exists only in their minds. They never have to live with the consequences.