President Trump will host an event next week to honor U.S. officials charged with enforcing immigration laws and protecting the border, a senior administration official confirmed Thursday, claiming the event has nothing to do with recent calls by some Democratic lawmakers to “abolish ICE.”
“What this is all about is to honor the work of law enforcement and so that’s something we should be able to come together on regardless of political persuasions,” the official told the Washington Examiner.
[More: Trump tells ICE agents: ‘We always will stand with you’]
The same official said the event had been in the works for some time and is expected to feature personnel from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, the primary agencies responsible for vetting individuals who enter the U.S. and detaining those who cross the border illegally.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the agencies would speak at the event next Monday or if remarks would exclusively be made by the president.
Though both agencies have faced criticism lately amid the ongoing family separation crisis at the border, some congressional Democratic candidates and members of Congress have directed their ire toward ICE. Leading figures in the party, including possible presidential contenders Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, have all called for the agency to be abolished and replaced with a more efficient bureaucratic system.
“There’s no question that we’ve got to critically reexamine ICE and its role, and the way that it is being administered and the work it is doing,” Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., another 2020 aspirant, told NBC in June, adding that “We need to probably think about starting from scratch.”
Trump has repeatedly criticized those calling for the agency’s dissolution, claiming in a series of tweets last month that Democratic efforts to kill the agency are a political “death wish” ahead of the November midterm elections.
“They actually want to abolish ICE. This should cost them heavily in the Midterms,” he wrote.
House Republicans introduced a resolution last month that aimed to bait their Democratic colleagues into declaring their opposition to the immigration enforcement agency. The bill by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., declared strong support for ICE and its “heroic law enforcement officers who make sacrifices every day to secure our borders.” Thirty-four Democrats voted against the resolution, while 133 voted “present.”
