LA riots, years of protests lead Republicans to seek federally criminalizing blocking traffic
In the wake of anti-ICE protesters and rioters trapping drivers in Los Angeles and other cities in recent days, Republican lawmakers want to make blocking streets a federal crime.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., will seek this week to make it a federal crime to obstruct or create intentional traffic. The "Safe and Open Streets Act" is a direct response to the "radical tactics of anti-ICE protesters who have intentionally blocked roads and highways across the country," Tillis said.
Lawbreakers could face fines or up to five years in prison.
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Video from Los Angeles showed rioters blocking expressways and city streets alike, at times violently attacking or confronting local and federal officers. Under California law, it is a misdemeanor to "willfully and maliciously obstruct the free movement of any person on any street, sidewalk, or other public place" – an ordinance rarely enforced during recent protests.
Tillis’ own state has not been immune to such blockages, as protesters shut down a busy portion of NC-147; Durham, North Carolina’s freeway, during rush hour in November 2023. Those protesters were seeking to "Free Palestine" and objecting to the Western response to the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas of Israeli and American citizens.
Immigration-related protests also cropped up recently on a main thoroughfare in Greensboro.
"The emerging tactic of radical protesters blocking roads and stopping commerce is not only obnoxious to innocent commuters, but it’s also dangerous and will eventually get people killed. It needs to be a crime throughout the country," Tillis told Fox News Digital.
Tillis added that the "radical" anti-immigration enforcement protesters must face the "full weight of the law" if they endanger public safety.
Sen. Ted Budd, Tillis’ Tarheel State counterpart, will be joining the effort, saying in a statement that emergency personnel being held up by such blockages put the public in further danger.
"The First Amendment protects the right to assemble and protest peacefully, but it does not permit such behavior," Budd said.
In another recent incident, pro-Palestinian protesters blocked the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike in Virginia – where Interstates 64 and 95 converge and carve through the city.
In that incident, protesters threw ladders and laid chicken wire across the Rocky Mount-bound lanes of the highway to grind rush hour to a halt at the city’s downtown "Boulevard" exit.
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"Blocking major roads to stop traffic flows is nothing short of lawlessness that should not be tolerated," said Sen. Marsha Blackburn of neighboring Tennessee.
"These activists are not only intentionally creating a dangerous situation for themselves, but perhaps for a citizen who is awaiting an ambulance or a hard worker who will lose their job for being late," she said in announcing her co-sponsorship of Tillis’ legislation; calling out "Hamas sympathizers" such as those in Richmond and Durham.
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Focusing again on Los Angeles, co-sponsor Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said that he watched the riots for "nearly a week" as California officials "did nothing" until President Donald Trump stepped in.
"[D]omestic terrorists assaulted ICE and law enforcement officers, set fire to cop cars and blocked the streets, all while Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass sat on their tails and did nothing," the former Auburn coach said.
"This is a prime example of what happens when lawlessness goes unpunished."
In New Orleans, where protests such as the anti-Trump "No Kings Day" event last week have been massive but more orderly, Sen. Bill Cassidy added that he supports Tillis’ bill because people have the right to have their voices heard but not to "undermine people’s livelihoods."