God I love this hamster wheel. LET THE FEDS SUE!

They're not going to need to sue.

You'll notice in that article that the police commissioner didn't identify any specific laws that were being broken - or expected to be broken - by the feds. Nor, to my knowledge, has anyone in Philadelphia actually arrested someone from ICE. Which makes sense, in some ways - neither of the two people making those speeches is in charge of the Philadelphia police department (the Philly Sheriff's office is different from the PD).

The folks making those speeches are doing exactly that - making speeches. They're not "fighting." They're not doing anything. They're saying that "if" federal agents commit crimes in Philly they'll be arrested and indicted.

But that doesn't address the issues we're talking about. Almost everything ICE is doing is awful but lawful, and in the instances where they're crossing state laws they won't be committing any crimes, because the Supremacy Clause permits them to ignore state laws. The DA can pontificate all he wants, but he's going to have a hard time getting an arrest warrant (much less an indictment) against a federal agent for nearly all of what ICE is doing.

Certainly what they did to Pretti can be prosecuted. They might not win, but when federal officials are shooting a face-down prone unarmed man in the back, that would be a defensible arrest and indictment. But all the other stuff that happens in the course of these detentions? Not bloody likely.

It's not a hamster wheel. It's the law. The federal government has power over immigration and immigration enforcement, and the states don't get to interfere with how they do it. If they try, they'll lose in court. If they try outside of court, the individuals that do it risk facing years in federal prison - and the very real likelihood that ICE will be able to legitimately be able to use force to stop them.

ICE isn't going to sue. If a cop tries to put cuffs on them in the course of a detention, they'll subdue the cop and haul him off to federal custody to face prosecution and possibly a decade in the federal penitentiary. And I bet the Philly police commissioner knows that, which is why the Philly PD issued a separate statement in response to those speeches clarifying the difference between the Sheriff's Office and the PD. Because the Philly police commissioner almost certainly isn't going to put his officers in that position.