Jimmy Kimmel attends Los Angeles anti-ICE protest with wife and children
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel posted a photo to his Instagram account Monday showing him, his wife Molly McNearney and his children attending an "ICE OUT" protest in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County.
In the photo, Kimmel and his family can be seen at the protest holding signs with anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) slogans such as "Deport ICE" and "Raise Good Girls and Pretti Boys," a nod to the fatal shootings of Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month involving federal immigration authorities.
"We were proud to see so many paid agitators (AKA patriotic Americans) marching en masse for the ICE OUT rally in the South Bay today. Keep it going!" Kimmel captioned the post.
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The late-night host's son is seen holding a sign that reads "Paid Agitator," similar to the post's caption, seeming to reference President Donald Trump's recent remark claiming that agitators are being paid to cause chaos at anti-ICE protests.
On Saturday, Trump announced the government will not assist blue cities with ongoing anti-immigration enforcement riots unless help is requested, adding he has instructed ICE and Border Patrol to be "very forceful" in the protection of federal property.
"I have instructed Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, that under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
He clarified that the federal government will, however, "guard, and very powerfully so, any and all Federal Buildings that are being attacked by these highly paid Lunatics, Agitators, and Insurrectionists."
Kimmel has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration's decision to send ICE and other federal agencies to American citizens to carry out widespread immigration raids.
During last Monday's broadcast of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," the late-night host said he spent this weekend "feeling shocked and sick about what is happening in Minneapolis" and at one point cried while discussing Pretti and the city.
"Children — small children — babies, being tear-gassed, taken into custody, separated from their parents. Just one atrocity after another, being committed by this gang of poorly trained, shamefully led, mask-wearing goons. And that is what they are, they're goons. Goons committing vile, heartless, even criminal acts. It’s sickening to watch, and it’s frustrating to watch," he said.
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Kimmel claimed that the federal government "just makes up the rules as they go" and said video recordings of both Good and Pretti's deaths disproved the Trump administration's official accounts of the shootings.
"They say the Honda SUV Renee Good was driving was ‘weaponized.’ They say the gun Alex Pretti had a license to carry, in an open-carry state — a right many of the same people screamed very loudly about when it was Kyle Rittenhouse carrying the gun — a gun that Alex Pretti did not ever draw, did not touch, a gun that was taken from him by one of the agents before he was shot dead by the other ones," Kimmel said.
"They fired 10 times on an ICU nurse. They're telling us, ‘Well, it was justified.’ Is that the law and order you voted for — if you voted for this?"
Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, was shot during an immigration enforcement operation early on Jan. 24. The operation targeted Jose Huerta-Chuma, an illegal immigrant with a criminal history including domestic assault for intentional conflict bodily harm, disorderly conduct and driving without a valid license.