Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) dropped a bombshell on CNN’s News Central Thursday, likening U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Iran’s brutal Revolutionary Guard and calling for its outright abolition in its current form. They are basically a Revolutionary Guard on our streets, Cohen fumed, slamming ICE agents for allegedly overstepping their authority—though his quote cuts off abruptly at They didn’t have the right to. This isn’t just fiery rhetoric from a Memphis Democrat; it’s a window into a mindset that views federal law enforcement as an existential threat when it enforces borders, not a protector of sovereignty. Cohen’s analogy isn’t hyperbole—it’s a deliberate invocation of a paramilitary force notorious for suppressing dissent and smuggling weapons across borders, now projected onto American agents doing their jobs amid a migrant surge that’s straining every resource from Texas to Tennessee.
For the 2A community, Cohen’s outburst is a flashing red light on the slippery slope of selective disarmament. If ICE—tasked with everything from human trafficking busts to seizing illegal firearms smuggled by cartels—gets painted as an Iranian-style thug squad worthy of erasure, what’s next for ATF agents raiding gun stores or FBI tactical teams enforcing red-flag laws? This isn’t abstract; ICE routinely uncovers cartel arsenals flooding our streets with untraceable ghost guns and military-grade hardware, directly intersecting with Second Amendment battles over border security and self-defense rights. Abolishing ICE wouldn’t end illegal arms flows; it’d amplify them, leaving armed smugglers unchecked while law-abiding gun owners face the fallout of emboldened cartels. Pro-2A patriots should see this as a rallying cry: defend all federal enforcers who stand between chaos and Constitution, because today’s ICE could be tomorrow’s pretext for gutting the agencies that protect our right to bear arms.
The implications ripple outward—Cohen’s viral clip energizes the open-borders left, but it hands 2A advocates ammunition to highlight the hypocrisy. Democrats cheer defunding police and ICE yet demand more assault weapon bans; they decry federal overreach abroad while inviting it home via unchecked migration. As midterms loom, this is prime fodder for memes, ads, and town halls: if Revolutionary Guards are patrolling our streets, it’s not ICE—it’s the narco-terrorists they’re fighting. Stay vigilant, Second Amendment defenders; the fight for secure borders is inseparable from the fight for secure rights.
