Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs on Thursday applauded the driver who purposely ran his vehicle through a crowd of protesters at an ICE facility, saying the man was well “within his rights” to plow through the crowd.
During a Wednesday night protest at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island, several demonstrators were injured when a black pickup truck drove into a group of protesters who were blocking the facility parking lot’s entrance. According to protest organizers, a 64-year-old man suffered a broken leg and internal bleeding.
An official told ABC News that the driver of the truck was not an ICE employee. A corrections officer who works at the detention center, Capt. Thomas Woodworth, has been placed on administrative leave “pending the results of the independent investigation being conducted by the Rhode Island State Police, and the Wyatt’s internal investigation.” (A spokesman for the facility wouldn’t say whether Woodworth was the driver.)
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Airing a clip of the incident on Thursday’s broadcast of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs set the scene by placing all the blame on the demonstrators.
“Protesters in Rhode Island harassing a federal detention worker last night,” the Trump confidant said. ”These demonstrators blocking an entrance to a facility holding illegal immigrants when the driver tried to pull into the parking lot, the protesters surrounded him, yelling, banging on the hood of the truck, blocking his entrance.”
Claiming that the protesters “committed assault” by blocking and touching the vehicle, Dobbs invited former acting ICE Director Tom Homan to give his reaction.
“I know that it must just gladden your heart to see a bunch of demonstrators at an Immigration Customs Enforcement facility blocking the path of a guard and then complaining about the fact that he sought to do what is within his rights, which is to proceed to park his vehicle and go to work,” the Fox Business host stated.
Homan agreed while wondering aloud whether any of the demonstrators “even got a job,” adding that ICE employees and contractors who run facilities are “on edge” because they are constantly “under attack.”
