Tue, Sep 29, 2020
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Michigan GOP Headquarters Vandalized With 'F--- ICE' Message

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News Immigration Michigan GOP

The Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing was vandalized over the weekend, not long after the announcement of impending raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement were made by President Donald Trump's administration.

While it is unknown if the message — f--- ICE was written in red spray paint across the front of the building — was left in connection to the planned raids, Michigan Republican Party Communications Director Tony Zammit told MLive.com that the office felt the message was directed to MIGOP Chair Laura Cox.

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Cox is a former ICE agent who served in Detriot and then transitioned into politics. She was sworn in as the MIGOP chair in February.

"Over the weekend, @MIGOP was vandalized attacking my previous role as an @ICEgovagent.

This criminal act by the radical left will not intimidate me or my staff. @realDonaldTrump is working to fix the crisis at our border and this deserves serious discussion, not graffiti," Cox wrote on Twitter in response to the vandalism, including a photo of the message with her tweet.

According to the Lansing State Journal, the graffiti was discovered on Saturday evening and reported to police around 7:30 p.m. Lansing Police Sgt. Jeromy Churchill told the newspaper that the vandalism occurred around 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
"The timing of the graffiti says a lot about that. It's indicative to the rising radical left trying to use violence and intimidation," Zammit told the Journal.
The message's arrival came hours after reports from multiple media outlets highlighted a plan for ICE agents in 10 cities across the U.S. to conduct raids in an effort to round up as many as 2,000 families.
Trump had alluded to the operation on Monday, tweeting, "Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in. Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people long before they get to our Southern Border. Guatemala is getting ready to sign a Safe-Third Agreement. The only ones who won't do anything are the Democrats in Congress. They must vote to get rid of the loopholes, and fix asylum! If so, Border Crisis will end quickly!"
However, on Saturday, Trump announced that the operation had been postponed for two weeks while Congress attempts to find a solution to "the asylum and loophole problems at the southern border."
"If not, Deportations start," the president tweeted.
Zammit said that this is not the first time the building has been vandalized. Another message was left on the building in October 2018, which read "we won't be erased" and included a symbol for transgender individuals. That same month, the Michigan GOP office in Traverse City was closed due to threats.

Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is a former MIGOP chair, retweeted Cox's message about the vandalism on Sunday, writing, "Instead of senseless vandalism and rhetoric comparing ICE detention facilities to concentration camps, Democrats should work to secure our border and reform our broken immigration system."

The investigation into who is responsible for the vandalism is ongoing.

Michigan GOP Headquarters
A photo of Michigan's GOP headquarters after it was vandalized around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Laura Cox/Twitter
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Michigan GOP Headquarters Vandalized With 'F--- ICE' Message | News