A U.S. Olympic curler has become the latest in a trend of American athletes to use the Winter Olympics as a platform to blast President Trump’s policies at home.
Rich Ruohonen, 54, a member of the U.S. Olympic curling team and a native of Minnesota, used a considerable chunk of his time in front of reporters on Tuesday to speak out against the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in his home state to rid the streets of criminal illegals.
“I’d like to say I’m proud to be here to represent Team USA, and to represent our country. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention what’s going on in Minnesota,” said Ruohonen, a personal injury lawyer.
“What a tough time it’s been for everybody. This stuff is happening right around where we live,” he added.
ICE agents and other federal agents have been working in and around Minneapolis in an effort to arrest criminal illegal aliens, many of them wanted for serious felony offenses.
The work of the agents has been hindered by throngs of anti-ICE agitators who have, on several occasions, attempted to interfere with the work of the agents violently.
“I am a lawyer, as you know. We have a constitution, and it allows us freedom of speech,” Ruohonen continued. “It protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures. And makes it that we have to have probable cause to be pulled over. What’s happening in Minnesota is wrong. There’s no shades of grey. It’s clear.”
Ruohonen went on to praise the anti-ICE activists who are demonstrating against the federal agents.
“I really love what’s been happening there now. With people coming out, showing the love, the compassion, the integrity and respect for others that they don’t know, and helping them out,” he said.
“We love Minnesota for that … We love our country. We’re playing for the U.S. We’re playing for each other, we’re playing for our family and our friends that sacrificed so much to get here today.”
The 54-year-old then appeared to suggest that Team USA is competing to represent those opposing anti-illegal-immigration efforts.
“What the Olympics means is excellence, respect, friendship. We all, I think, exemplify that. We are playing for the people of Minnesota and the people around the country who share those same values, that compassion, that love, and that respect.”
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