Since the George Floyd riots broke out across the country in 2020, Democrats have made it clear that they’re opposed to the very notion of the Rule of Law. Then, they told us violence was an acceptable remedy for injustice. Now, they’re taking issue with President Donald Trump enforcing federal immigration law by sending agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement into cities across the country.

There are legitimate opinions on both sides of the issue. After all, it’s not ideal to send federal agents into American cities and workplaces. Then again, the fact that it’s necessary in the first place is the result of Democrats putting the safety of their own citizens at risk by giving criminal illegal aliens free rein within sanctuary cities and setting up ICE-free zones.

What’s lost in all the talk about providing sanctuary for illegals is this: Where is the sanctuary for the law-abiding citizens who fear for their lives daily?

Federal agents have the constitutional obligation to enforce the law, and that’s what they’re doing. And while sending ICE agents into cities may not solve the issue in the long term, politically, it has exposed big-city Democrats as frauds.

For those of us not living in blue cities, imagine living in a neighborhood where illegals sell drugs, burglarize businesses, and commit rapes or other egregious offenses, and then hearing the mayor of your city boast that federal law enforcement officers are not welcome and ordering the police not to help them if they do show up.

That’s exactly what Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has done by seeking to block ICE agents from entering the city and threatening them with criminal charges if they violate his executive order, which aims to ensure that “physical barriers such as locked gates are used to limit access to City property for the purpose of federal immigration enforcement. The measure directs that City employees immediately report any attempted use of City property for immigration enforcement.”

It’s all part of Johnson’s broader attempt to incite city residents into an angry mob, preventing the enforcement of federal law.

It comes as no surprise when we see violent assaults on the very agents there to protect the people of Chicago. As Hot Air’s Beege Welborn reports, “The City of Chicago covered itself in utter craven disgrace this weekend when federal officers came under attack, requested assistance from the Chicago Police, had every right to expect it, and then nobody showed up to help. Why? Because they received orders NOT to go to the besieged federal police officers’ relief.”

Johnson took his rhetoric to another level of ridiculousness by claiming, “The president of the United States of America has declared war on the people of Chicago and people across America.” He added, “The right wing in this country wants a rematch of the Civil War.” Johnson didn’t mention the real civil war taking place on the streets of Chicago, where law-abiding citizens fear walking down the street. And now Johnson is threatening criminal charges against agents for doing their jobs to enforce the law. Democrats like Johnson want the rest of the country to think ICE agents are targeting the innocent for simply being, you guessed it, black or brown.

Think again — “innocent” has nothing to do with it. The Department of Homeland Security reveals that the people ICE arrested on the streets of the Windy City include a Tren de Aragua gang member from Venezuela and illegal aliens from Mexico with charges including driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, aggravated assault with a weapon, drug trafficking, kidnapping, pedophilia, and endangerment of a child.

For his part, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is pulling his weight in helping Mayor Johnson protect the criminal class. As legal scholar Jonathan Turley writes, “Pritzker has been using equally inflammatory language about a few hundred National Guardsmen ‘occupying’ the city and, most recently, told Rachel Maddow that the National Guard would intimidate voters at polling places and it might even seize voting boxes or ballots to steal the upcoming election.”

“Both leaders are attempting to marshal the mob for political purposes,” adds Turley. “At a time of rising political violence, including the recent sniper attack on an ICE facility and the Charlie Kirk assassination, Pritzker and Johnson are fueling the rage.”

The rage, unfortunately, is not limited to Chicago. In Portland, Oregon, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has warned that she will send four times the number of federal officers to ensure their safety in response to recent threats on ICE agents. Meanwhile, Portland Police Chief Bob Day has called the protests at the scene mostly peaceful.

Sounds like something we’ve heard before. As American cities were burned and looted in 2020, we were told repeatedly that we were witnessing peaceful protests. If you’re in a Democrat city and hear about a “peaceful” protest, you know it’s not safe to go outside. And now, it’s not safe for law enforcement either. It’s egregious enough for sanctuary cities to forbid local police from aiding federal immigration officials, but to stand down while ICE agents are threatened with violence is something we haven’t seen before.

This is a defining moment of clarity in American politics. Democrats are definitively declaring that they stand with the criminal class and against the Rule of Law. They are loyal to illegal alien gang members instead of the innocent, hardworking citizens of their cities. For all their talk about threats to our democracy, they’re doing everything they can to turn it into a third-world hellhole where the powerful and corrupt elite align themselves with those who seek to undermine our civilization.