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DHS Claps Back At Hit NBC Drama Over ICE Portrayal

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Mariska Hargitay
Photo Credit: YantsImages, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Liberal Hollywood is under fire from the Department of Homeland Security for turning federal immigration officers into villains on prime-time television.

The season premiere of NBC’s mainstay cop show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” centered on Captain Olivia Benson, played by Mariska Hargitay, in pursuit of a rapist.

But instead of keeping the spotlight on the crime at hand, the storyline depicted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as relentless antagonists, drawing harsh condemnation from the DHS.

The controversial episode shows Benson trying to protect a superintendent named Jorge Ruiz, a key witness in her investigation.

Ruiz admits he has lived illegally in the United States for 22 years, and ICE agents soon appear at police headquarters to detain him.

When Benson attempts to keep Ruiz in NYPD custody as a witness, the ICE officers arrest her character for “obstructing this operation from the beginning.”

In the season 27 premiere, ICE is portrayed as undermining the prosecution of a sexual predator, effectively casting the federal agents as obstacles rather than protectors.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin delivered a blistering response in a statement to the Daily Mail.

“Not even a week ago, our ICE law enforcement was shot up by a deranged lunatic who wanted to terrorize ICE,” she commented.

“And not even a week later Law and Order: SVU released an episode that further villainizes our brave ICE law enforcement.”

McLaughlin urged the  entertainment industry to tone down their woke rhetoric. “NBC and Hollywood elites must stop fanning the flames of division,” she continued.

She praised ICE officers for tirelessly working to remove sexual predators from American society.

The Trump administration official also pointed to an alarming trend: “Our officers are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them.”

McLaughlin concluded by calling the portrayal “irresponsible and pathetic.”

Her frustration came just days after a violent ambush on ICE agents in Texas that resulted in the deaths of detainees.

Authorities said Joshua Jahn, 29, opened fire on an ICE facility before taking his own life. No agents were killed, but detainees inside the building were hit.

Miguel Angel Garcia-Hernandez, one of the detainees wounded during the incident, died Tuesday after being on life support.

According to family members and the League of United Latin American Citizens, Garcia-Hernandez was targeted by the gunman’s rooftop assault on the Dallas facility.

Another detainee, 37-year-old Norlan Guzmán Fuentes from El Salvador, was also killed, while a third man, Jose Andres Bordones-Molina of Venezuela, survived with injuries.

Jahn left handwritten notes that displayed “hatred for the federal government,” leading investigators to conclude that ICE agents, not detainees, were his intended targets.

“The tragic irony for his evil plot here is that it was a detainee who was killed and two other detainees that were injured,” commented Nancy Larson, acting US attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Adding fuel to the controversy, the episode also shocked longtime viewers by killing off one of the show’s most beloved characters, Captain Donald Cragen.

Played by Dann Florek, Cragen had been a fixture of the “Law & Order” universe since 1990.

The season premiere opens with Olivia Benson attending his memorial service, though the cause of his death is left unexplained.

At the funeral, a video tribute played showing Cragen reflecting on his career. “I lived for my job,” he said. “I don’t think that surprises anybody and I can’t imagine my life any other way.”

Hargitay’s character also shared her memories, saying, “He was the best boss that I ever had. Everything I know about being a captain, I learned from him.”

Fans were outraged that producers wrote the character off so abruptly. One social media user wrote, “What exactly was the point of killing off Cragen in #SVU y’all could had left that man alone. That’s lazy writing!”

Another viewer asked, “Why did they do that to Captain Cragen?! I loved his occasional guest appearances.”

Florek’s impact on the series was undeniable. Over three decades, he appeared in more than 400 episodes spanning multiple “Law & Order” and its spinoffs.

The media firestorm over “Law & Order” came at the same time another television controversy surfaced, this one involving a project about President Trump.

Armando Iannucci, creator of HBO’s political satire “Veep,” claimed during a Creative UK event in Liverpool that he has faced financial roadblocks trying to launch a show based on Trump’s speeches. He suggested backers were too fearful of retaliation.

“I got a lot of, ‘Yeah, you wouldn’t get the money for that at the moment, I’m afraid,’” Iannucci told the crowd, recounting conversations with potential investors.

When he asked why, he said they told him, “‘Well, you know, if you want what comes with it.’”

The filmmaker described warnings he’s heard from journalists who told him his life would be made difficult if he pursues the project.

“If you’re on the list, your life is made miserable,” he recalled them cautioning.

“The inland revenue will come calling, you better lawyer up, you will spend the next four years just weighed down by legal issues you have to get through.”

Despite the concerns, Iannucci vowed to push ahead with the project, telling Channel 4 News that he will search for funding outside the United States. “Let’s see what happens,” he said.

Iannucci, a frequent Trump critic, has a history of inflammatory remarks about the president.

In a 2017 interview with The Independent, he compared Trump to Joseph Stalin while promoting his film “The Death of Stalin.”

“The danger is turning him into a comedy character. Because then he becomes a clown, someone who is quite containable. He’s not. Trump’s dangerous. He’s unstable. He’s not an idiot, he’s deranged,” Iannucci said.

“Anyone Stalin disagreed with was called an enemy of the people, you were criminalized,” the “Veep” creator added.

”Trump calls you ‘fake news’ and ‘unpatriotic’. It’s that same tendency of someone who wants to run the country by himself, not wanting anyone to oppose him. I find it disturbing.”

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