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Jesse Watters wants ‘too nice’ ICE to ‘knock some heads together’ in response to escalating tensions

July 11, 2025 | | Print Article

Fox News’ Jesse Watters suggested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could be being “too nice” and may need to be more aggressive to show protesters that they mean business.

During a conversation with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday’s edition of “Jesse Watters Primetime,” the host rolled footage of a confrontation between federal agents and leftists at a California marijuana farm that was the target of an ICE raid for harboring illegal aliens.

“There seems to be some sort of raid that went down at a cannabis farm, it was staffed almost entirely by illegal alien labor, and all of a sudden, Antifa, local agitators came in, and it looks like they’ve kind of surrounded federal agents,” Watters said, adding. “It seems to be like, there’s a lot more intensity now with each one of these raids…”

(Video: Fox News)

The Sunshine State Republican explained how it’s a “big big problem” in California where the protesters have “developed a sense of entitlement to simply disregard federal laws that they don’t like.”

“Governor, is ICE being too nice?” Watters asked DeSantis. “They’re doing, I guess, de-escalation tactics, which probably is the right move. But the more you tangle with these crazy people, the more it gives them confidence.”

“And if you don’t make arrests and knock some heads together and show them that you might get hurt when you come in and block law enforcement, they’re just gonna get more and more angry,” he continued. “Do you think that they could step up some of their tactics?”

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The operation took place at Glass House Farms in Ventura County, with an angry mob arriving at the scene after getting notice that there was a raid in progress. One demonstrator appeared to fire a gun at federal law enforcement officers, the latest incident of anti-ICE violence that has been stoked by elected Democrats who have resorted to raw demagoguery and lies to combat the Trump administration’s deportation efforts.

DeSantis then explained how things would be handled in Florida, where local law enforcement would be empowered to assist the federal agents.

“I think what would happen, if that were tried in Florida, we would have our state agencies, and I’m sure a lot of the local police and sheriffs would be working,” he said. “And so, ICE has the mission of apprehending the illegals. If we had people that were trying to block a street, we in the state of Florida, we would take care of that no problem and work very cooperatively.”

“I think there’s a lot of police officers, individually, who want to be helpful,” the governor added. “But the political leadership is not allowing that to happen. So, I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s ICE that has to take care of all of that because some of that absolutely needs to be done with state and local assets.”

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U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli vowed that no matter how much Democrats instigate attacks on federal law enforcement officers, they won’t be deterred.

“Dangerous rhetoric from CA politicians is fueling assaults on federal agents enforcing immigration laws. Their reckless words implicitly encourage violence, escalating tensions. But we won’t back down. Our operations targeting criminal illegal immigrants will continue stronger than ever,” he wrote in a Thursday X post.

Chris Donaldson
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