Activists block ICE headquarters in standoff to protest immigration policy, migrant detention
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Federal authorities arrested at least 11 Jewish activists and immigration rights activists who blocked entrances and exits to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Washington Tuesday as part of a call to abolish the agency over the condition of migrants detained in border facilities, as well as family separations.
The group Never Again Action marched from the National Mall in Washington D.C. to the agency building where they linked arms and stood or sat down in front of entrance and exit doors, WJLA-TV reported. Frustrated ICE employees could be seen trying to get into the building without success.
The group has held #ShutDownICE demonstrations in other cities. During Tuesday's event, one protestor shouted: "Don't put them in cages," referring to migrant children detainees.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ANTI-MIGRANT DETENTION PROTESTS LEAD TO 16 ARRESTS IN PHOENIX
"Where are you going to put them at?" an ICE employee responded, according to the news station.
Some protestors carried a banner aimed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that read "Pelosi, never again is now." Pelosi has come under scrutiny from progressives over her support for a $4.6 billion bill to send aid to the U.S.-Mexico border after pushing for more protections for migrants.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}ARMED MAN SHOT, KILLED AFTER THROWING INCENDIARY DEVICES AT WASHINGTON ICE DETENTION CENTER
Other demonstrators carried signs likening ICE to the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis and some blocked rush hour traffic to and from agency headquarters.
Neither the Federal Protective Service, which made the arrests, or ICE responded to a Fox News request for comment.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Tuesday's events followed nationwide protests against ICE and President's Trump's immigration policies over the weekend, including recent sweeps to round up and deport undocumented immigrants.
Last week, protestors outside an ICE facility in Colorado briefly replaced the American flag with the flag of Mexico. An armed man was killed over the weekend when he tried attacking an ICE detention center in Washington state.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Critics of the agency have called for its dissolution and have chastised immigration officials over the treatment of migrants, some of whom have said they go days or weeks without showers and are given inadequate food and water.
“The law is the law. What I swore to do, when I joined this agency, it was to do the job," one ICE employee told WJLA Tuesday.