Ongoing protests against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts are "organized" and driven by politics, with Democrats encouraging unlawful tactics that interfere with immigration enforcement, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said on Newsmax Saturday.
"These are organized protests being funded by billionaires from other countries who are pushing the New Democratic Party agenda," Blagojevich told Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
That agenda is "encouraging" people who are misguided, but often well-intentioned, to "break the law, to obstruct justice, to stand in the way of law enforcement in their efforts to enforce the law," he added.
The demonstrations, said the former governor, are not an "organic thing that's happening," but are "cynical" and "political," and are "causing people to lose their lives."
Blagojevich also criticized sanctuary city policies, saying that people come to the United States illegally because they think they'll be shielded.
"Democrats invited them in with sanctuary cities, by basically saying to people in other countries come into America, our borders mean nothing, and we'll protect you when the law comes down and wants to enforce itself against you," he said.
He also responded to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner in which Krasner described federal immigration authorities as "a small bunch of wannabe Nazis" and said they'd be hunted "the way they hunted down Nazis for decades."
"If you're an ordinary citizen and the chief law enforcement officer in Philadelphia, the prosecutor himself is telling you to go hunt down law enforcement officers? I mean, you feel like you can do it legally," said Blagojevich.
"When those things happen and someone gets hurt or gets killed, the blood is on the hands of people like that prosecutor in Philadelphia, Krasner, and others," he said.
Blagojevich compared such statements to the tactics "used by the communists in Russia to overthrow their government."
"Not since the Civil War have we seen our country in a position like this," he continued. "We haven't quite gotten to that place yet, but we're not that far away."
He also said Democrats have centered their strategy on opposition to President Donald Trump, saying, "The only thing they have going for them, because they're offering the people nothing, is to do this sort of stuff, and everything is anti-Trump."
Blagojevich praised steps he said the Trump administration is taking to respond.
"The fact that Tom Homan has been sent to Minneapolis, the fact that President Trump is requiring him to report directly to him, this is real leadership," he said.
Still, he predicted the dispute will continue.
"My prediction is, notwithstanding what's been said in the last couple of days, Gov. [Tim] Walz and that mayor of Minneapolis, it's all talk," said Blagojevich. "They're going to continue to do what they're doing and try to obstruct President Trump's efforts to deport violent criminals."
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