ICE raids Sanctuary City (UPDATE)

Many border security advocates decry ICE enforcement actions as symbolism over substance. The recent raid on New Haven is probably an example of that, but I sure do like the symbolism behind it:

The police adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for dealing with immigrants, and the mayor backed a plan for municipal identification cards. Within the borders of this liberal college town, there was hardly a whiff of opposition.

But starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday, two days after the Board of Aldermen overwhelmingly approved the identity card plan, federal agents swept into the largely Hispanic Fair Haven community and arrested some 31 people suspected of being illegal immigrants, many in their homes.

Within hours, any sense of sanctuary that the city and advocates for immigrants advocates had developed over the years was turned upside down, replaced with fear.

“There is truly no safe haven for fugitive aliens,” said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that conducted the raid.

Of course the Times takes the "Women, Minorities Hardest Hit" angle, talking up the climate of FEAR these raids have engendered, and how shocked everyone is that Federal law actually supersedes municipal law. Who knew?

I got a kick out of the photo the Times editors used to illustrate this story, of a diverse crowd of activists wearing rapturous expressions illumined by a soft glow through church windows. It is a beautiful photo, the kind that wins Pulitizers. It may have been too good not to run. But it is certainly not a neutral photo. I don't think they'll mind if I post their thumbnail version (the larger version is a wider panorama, and worth clicking through to see):

I hear that Thomas Kinkade just saw that picture and called it "too cheesy".

P.S. Is Beatific Illuminated Lincolnesque Whitey wearing a guyabera or eccclesiastical robes?

UPDATE: Commenter Occasus thinks it's the latter:

I don’t see any buttons down the front and that looks like a crown on his left side. On the right, it looks like he’s got an icon of Mary below what appears to be the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

It's like Norman Rockwell and Diego Rivera had a child who's a photographer for the NYT.