Report: Texas Republican Called ICE on Protesters

During a raucous protest against Texas’s new anti-‘sanctuary cities’ law, one House Republican told two of his colleagues on Monday that he called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on demonstrators who were at the Capitol, according to the Texas Observer. Representative Matt Rinaldi allegedly called chanting protesters a “disgrace,” telling Democrats Ramon Romero Jr. and Cesar Blanco on the House floor that he’d had enough. “Fuck them, I called ICE,” Rinaldi allegedly said, according to Romero’s account. The comments nearly sparked a physical fight among the lawmakers before they were pulled apart, the Observer writes. “He saw a bunch of people who look Latino, and he assumed they’re undocumented,” Romero told the magazine. “So how can he say SB 4 won’t lead to racial profiling?”