In yet another example of Democrats prioritizing illegal immigration over law enforcement, Rochester’s liberal leadership is fuming after local police officers dared to do their jobs. Their crime? Responding to a distress call from Border Patrol agents who were dealing with a potentially dangerous situation.
On Monday, federal agents from Border Patrol pulled over a van carrying at least eight individuals and requested backup from the Rochester Police Department. As any responsible officers would, RPD responded with lights and sirens, assisted in securing the scene, and helped detain the individuals until the situation was under control.
A normal day for law enforcement—except in a Democrat-run sanctuary city, where enforcing the law is apparently unacceptable.
Instead of commending his officers for responding to a call for help, Rochester’s Democrat Mayor Malik Evans held a press conference on Wednesday to scold them for violating the city’s radical sanctuary policies.
“The officers on the scene verbally directed the occupants to get out of the vehicle, and this is against our policy,” Evans declared.
Rather than backing his police department, the mayor made it clear that in Rochester, the priority is shielding illegal immigrants, not supporting law enforcement.
“Our policy is crystal clear. City police officers do not help or participate in federal immigration activities,” he continued, as if assisting fellow officers in a traffic stop is somehow an act of treason.
Evans then announced that he personally instructed Police Chief David Smith to remind every officer of their duty—not to the law, not to public safety, but to political correctness.
Chief Smith, instead of defending his officers for responding to what they believed to be an emergency, joined the mayor in rebuking them.
“From watching the body-worn camera footage, what is concerning to me is despite the fact that we were called, we went lights and sirens,” he complained.
Let that sink in. A law enforcement leader is chastising his officers for treating a Border Patrol call with urgency. Even worse, he then criticized the federal agents for not appearing distressed enough.
“I see in the video a total lack of urgency on the part of multiple Border Patrol officers at the scene,” he said, as if his officers should have ignored the call for help.
Smith doubled down, making it clear that Rochester’s police are now expected to stand down rather than assist in enforcing immigration laws.
“We are not to be handcuffing subjects,” he stated. “We are not to be doing pat frisks on subjects, and we are absolutely not going to be detaining them or putting them into our cars.”
Translation: Let federal agents fend for themselves.
Not everyone was willing to cave to the mayor’s outrage. The Rochester Police Locust Club, the city’s police union, issued a strong statement defending the officers and calling Evans’ reaction “a complete overreaction.”
“As with any law enforcement agency that indicates it has a critical situation in progress within the City of Rochester, officers responded under lights and sirens … expecting their fellow law enforcement officers to be in distress when they got there.”
The union clarified that the individuals in the van refused to comply with Border Patrol, and the RPD’s presence helped peacefully resolve the situation.
“The officers on scene asked no questions of the occupants about their immigration status or relevant documents. No force was used … Once the scene was secured, that ended RPD’s involvement in the matter.”
And yet, for simply doing their jobs, these officers are now being reprimanded.
Rochester has been a sanctuary city since 1986, a policy reaffirmed in 2017 to ensure that illegal immigrants receive more protection than law-abiding citizens. Under General Order 501, Rochester police are prohibited from assisting in federal immigration enforcement—apparently even when lives could be at stake.
This is the state of law enforcement under Democrat rule: Officers punished for responding to calls, criminals shielded from accountability, and local leadership more interested in political grandstanding than public safety.
No wonder crime is spiraling out of control in sanctuary cities across America.
