ICED OUT

Skiers for Team USA in the Winter Olympics, Chris Lillis and Hunter Hess, spoke out against ICE during a press conference at the Olympics this week. They attempted to walk the fine line between claiming to support their country, while also distancing themselves from ICE’s operations within their country. They stated that they [Lillis and Hess] don’t “represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.” Lillis said, “I feel heartbroken about what’s happened in the United States.” He added that the United States needs “to focus on respecting everybody’s rights and making sure that we’re treating our citizens as well as anybody with love and respect.”

Hess expressed that it was “a little hard” for him to “wear Team USA gear” as there was “a lot going on that” he isn’t “the biggest fan of.” He continued, “just because I’m wearing the flag doesn’t mean I represent everything that’s going on in the U.S.” 1980 Olympic Gold Medalist and captain of Team USA in hockey responded by tweeting, “then don’t put on the USA uniform.”

Hess took it a step further when he said that what ICE was doing does not align with his “moral values”. In essence, he sees ICE detaining and deporting criminal illegal aliens from our country is somehow immoral, even though almost every other country does the same thing or even worse to illegal immigrants who illegally cross their borders. If they are against ICE, then it is fair to ask if they are for them criminal aliens and the violent crime that comes with them?

Since Donald Trump took office in January of 2025, and implemented his policy to use ICE to secure the border and mass deportation of criminal aliens, the death rate from fentanyl in the United States has dropped more than 50%, and we have seen the lowest murder rate in our country in the last 125 years. So, it appears that stopping the murder of U.S. citizens and preventing overdose deaths from fentanyl does not align with the “moral values” of these skiers. Apparently, they support increasing the number of murders and overdoses in the country whose flag they wear on their uniforms?

Where do these two stand on Laken Riley? Was her vicious rape and murder by a criminal illegal alien who should have been deported a good thing? It’s hard to tell because what ICE is doing prevents rape and murder and they have publicly stated they are against what ICE is doing. How many fewer Laken Riley’s have there been in 2025 because of ICE’s activity? These people do not care about the drastic increase of violent crime brought by massive illegal immigration because most Olympic skiers grew up living a privilege life in gated communities where that that type of crime would never touch them. It is easy for them to be “moral” when their morality never negatively impacts their own life; it only devastates the lives of people they would never interact with.

They can turn a blind eye to the devastation of illegal immigration because it does not affect them, but let’s say, during the Biden administration’s open border policy, all of the top skiers in the world decided to cross our border illegally and join the United States Olympic ski team. Most of the US Olympic skiers who are speaking out against ICE would not be US Olympic skiers anymore, and therefore, would not have the platform to speak out against ICE. If that ever happened, they would most likely argue that it is not fair for a citizen from another country, just to come here and join the US Olympic team. You can’t just decide to represent any country you feel like in the Olympics. But they completely support illegal immigrants coming here and taking the jobs of other Americans citizens, but if illegals took their spot on their team, they would object loudly. 

The most ironic part of all of this is that the only reason why we care about skiing every four years is because of the Olympics which is premised on a national identity that was created by strong borders and a shared culture. Most of the time, these athletes perform their sport in relative anonymity because their sports are not interesting enough for the majority of people to care to watch, but then once every four years, the world spotlight turns on them because it is the Olympics, and the Olympics bring out our national pride and national identity which we have because of our strong borders, and common culture and values.

All of what makes the Olympics the pinnacle of achievement for many of these athletes is threatened by mass illegal immigration – the very thing that ICE is trying to stop. But these athletes use their once in a four-year spotlight which is created by strong borders and national identity, to trash the very people who are working to protect and preserve our countries borders and national identity. If the globalists new world order becomes a reality through open borders and mass illegal immigration, there will be no Olympics. The concept of Olympics does not make sense in the globalists new world order because there are no sovereign borders and no national identity in globalism. And no one would know who Chris Lillis and Hunter Hess are – not even for two weeks every four years.

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.