Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is sounding the alarm over what he says is a dangerous replay of the same anti-law-enforcement mindset that fueled unrest after the death of George Floyd — this time repackaged as immigration policy. As violent protests once again erupt in Minneapolis, Kennedy argues Democrats are repeating the same mistakes, with predictable and destructive results.
In a Fox News op-ed published Friday, Kennedy wrote that Democratic officials who once flirted with defunding the police are now applying that same logic to immigration enforcement. According to Kennedy, federal agents are being smeared as racists, the rule of law is being undermined, and chaos is being invited back into American cities. Watching the unrest unfold in Minneapolis, Kennedy said it is clear the country risks sliding into “another disastrous anti-law enforcement crisis.”
The Louisiana Republican described what he sees as a familiar cycle. Leftist activists seize on a crisis, demonize law enforcement, and pressure Democratic leaders to retreat rather than restore order. The result, Kennedy argued, is lawlessness driven by people who take advantage of weakened enforcement. “There are some people in this world who enjoy hurting other people and taking other people’s stuff,” he wrote, rejecting the idea that criminal behavior is the result of confusion or misunderstanding.
Kennedy said the “defund the police” movement exploited a handful of high-profile misconduct cases to push what he called a dishonest narrative — that police officers are worse than criminals and should be replaced with social workers. Before Floyd’s death in 2020, Kennedy argued, such views were largely confined to radical academics and activists.
That changed, he wrote, when Democratic leaders in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, chose to appease activists rather than enforce the law. Kennedy said rioters were allowed to target law enforcement, police precincts were burned, and good officers were publicly defamed while city leaders stood by.
The consequences, Kennedy argued, were severe and measurable. In the aftermath of the Floyd riots, commercial burglaries rose 43 percent, carjackings surged 93 percent, and murders increased 44 percent, according to crime data cited in his op-ed. Even years later, police departments nationwide remain understaffed compared to pre-2020 levels. In Minneapolis, Kennedy noted, the police force is still roughly one-third smaller than it was before Floyd’s death.
“Maintaining a strong police force is not a light switch you can flick on and off as the woke mob demands,” Kennedy wrote, arguing that sustained demoralization drove officers out of the profession.
Now, Kennedy says Democrats are poised to repeat the same errors by targeting federal immigration enforcement. As agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol move to enforce immigration laws in Minnesota, activists and Democratic officials have accused them of racism and “white supremacy,” rhetoric Kennedy says is designed to delegitimize enforcement altogether.
The senator warned that protests are being used to pressure Congress into defunding federal law enforcement agencies, echoing the failed strategies of the defund-the-police era. Democrats, he noted, are increasingly framing immigration enforcement as a civil rights issue, even as demonstrations against federal agents have been accompanied by violence and property damage.
Kennedy pointed to congressional Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who have tied funding for the Department of Homeland Security to sweeping proposals aimed at reining in ICE.
For Kennedy, the lesson is unmistakable. Undermining law enforcement does not lead to justice or safety, he argued — it leads to disorder. And he warned that officials who watched their cities burn once should know better than to let it happen again.
