President Trump on Tuesday defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from sharp criticism in recent days, saying his administration fully supports the agency amid calls for its abolition by some congressional Democrats.
“We respect ICE. These are tough people,” Trump said at an event in West Virginia, which was intended to help boost Senate Republican candidate Patrick Morrisey.
[Trump: Calls for dismantling ICE will have voters flipping to GOP]
Trump said ICE agents have “liberated” towns across the U.S. by capturing criminal illegal immigrants and members of the violent transnational MS-13 gang in routine raids. The agency arrested 91 illegal immigrants just last month during a five-day “sweep” in New Jersey, including some with convictions for sexual assault, child abuse, and kidnapping.
“We send ICE in and for ICE, it’s just another day. These guys, they walk into those areas, and they take them out so fast,” the president said. “They’re not afraid of anything.”
He continued, “And then I hear Democrats saying, ‘We want to abandon ICE.’ We’re not abandoning ICE and we’re not abandoning our law enforcement.”
‘Just the opposite,” Trump added.
Some prominent Democrats, including possible 2020 contender Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have called for the agency to be abolished amid concerns about its handling of family separations and arrests at the Southwest border.
“The president’s deeply immoral actions have made it obvious that we need to rebuild our immigration system from top to bottom, starting by replacing ICE with something that reflects our values,” Warren wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend.
Trump and White House allies claim Democratic criticism of the leading immigration enforcement agency will give Republicans a midterm boost if it continues into the fall.
“Many Democrats are deeply concerned about the fact that their ‘leadership’ wants to denounce and abandon the great men and women of ICE, thereby declaring war on Law & Order,” Trump tweeted on Monday. “These people will be voting for Republicans in November and, in many cases, joining the Republican Party!”
