Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg has welcomed Homeland Security and ICE agents into the city, because he wants to appease the administration of the Orange Menace.

What could possibly go wrong?

A Louisville attorney and owners of a Germantown restaurant are speaking out after a man was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while at a routine probation meeting Feb. 10.

Attorney Frank Mascagni said Aldo Renato Soto-Pantoja, 33, was meeting with a pretrial diversion program officer Feb. 10 when he was escorted into another room where ICE then placed him into custody. Originally from Cuba, Soto-Pantoja is in the process of applying for U.S. citizenship.

Mascagni emphasized that though Soto-Pantoja was charged with felony assault in 2023, he is not a convicted felon. According to Jefferson County Circuit Court records, Soto-Pantoja is part of a pretrial diversion program that allows for a criminal case to be expunged after five years of law-abiding behavior, including paying fees and passing drug tests, Mascagni said.

“So he comes to this country, he’s applying for citizenship, doing everything that is requested of him, and walked into his … monthly reporting and then is detained,” he said. “That is offensive to me.”

Mascagni was first contacted about representing Soto-Pantoja by an employee at Hauck’s Corner, a popular restaurant where Soto-Pantoja works as a chef. In a Feb. 10 statement to The Courier Journal, Hauck’s chef and partner Allan Rosenberg said that staff was “very sad and upset about the situation” as Soto-Pantoja has been an employee for several years.

Just a reminder that this headline appeared in the New York Times:

A Risky Bet: Louisville’s Democratic Mayor Accommodates ICE

Craig Greenberg’s move, requested by the Trump administration, allows federal agents more time to detain immigrants who are held at the city’s jail.

Greenberg is up for reelection, but this year’s mayoral race has one particular snag:

This year will be the first time the races for mayor and Metro Council will be nonpartisan, meaning candidates will not have a party affiliation next to their names on the ballot.

It seems that now’s the time to clearly delineate what political party mayoral candidates are representing, because there is an enormous difference between MAGA Republicans and Progressive Democrats. Every candidate should be asked “Who did you voter for in the 2024 presidential race.”

We can do without a Quisling who lets masked thugs run rampant throughout our communities. Greenberg has demonstrated he has no concern for people of color in this city. Here he is commenting on local demonstrations against ICE. Notice his threats are aimed at Louisvillians, not the masked federal goons.

Let’s make sure we don’t do worse when November rolls around.