When Politics Turns Against The Law
A dangerous form of moral dementia has begun to spread within certain sectors of American public life, one that no serious society can tolerate. Some politicians, intoxicated by the theatrics of populism, have begun suggesting that local law enforcement officers should arrest federal agents who are merely fulfilling their duty to uphold immigration law. The very articulation of such an idea, in itself, reveals the intellectual and ethical decay that has infected part of the nation’s leadership.
This is not merely a betrayal of the constitutional order; it is an affront to the dignity of all those who wear a uniform and serve the State with honor. The duty of law enforcement is not to bend before political caprice but to ensure that law prevails over emotion and partisan interest. When a local politician demands the arrest of a federal officer lawfully enforcing immigration statutes, he is not defending his community, he is undermining the very foundation of justice upon which it stands.
Even when such absurdities are proclaimed aloud, one immutable principle must be recalled: no local police officer, county sheriff, or state trooper possesses any legal authority to arrest a federal agent acting in the lawful performance of his duties. The Constitution of the United States, and the jurisprudence derived from it, is categorical on this matter. Federal law supersedes any state or municipal provision that conflicts with it. This supremacy is not a matter of political preference; it is the cornerstone upon which the unity of the Republic rests. Without this legal hierarchy, fifty states would drift into fifty divergent notions of legality, ushering in the moral and institutional dissolution of the Nation itself.
In my personal view, those truly responsible for inciting hatred, disorder, and contempt for authority are not the federal agents who enforce the law but the politicians who propagate such reckless rhetoric. It is they, and not the men and women of law enforcement, who should be held accountable before the courts. By sowing hostility toward those who protect the Nation, they assault public peace and erode the respect owed to legitimate authority.
Those who serve under the emblem of law, whether at the local or federal level, deserve respect and not political persecution. To pit the forces of order against one another is to open the door to anarchy and to destroy from within the very structure of the Rule of Law. The American system was built upon cooperation among jurisdictions, not the competition of egos.
The true question is not whether federal agents should carry out lawful arrests, but whether political leaders still possess the courage to defend the law when doing so becomes inconvenient. Civilization begins when obedience to law surpasses obedience to impulse. When that balance is lost, barbarism soon returns.
Caesar DePaço
Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
Consul ad-honorem of Portugal (2014 to 2020)
Founder and CEO, Summit Nutritionals International Inc.
President, DePaço Foundation
Unwavering Defender of Law Enforcement and Conservative Principles
When Politics Turns Against the Law
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