President Donald Trump wanted to make one thing clear Monday: He will do everything in his power to ensure that the men and women of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agencies have all the support they need.
[Trump: A blue wave ‘means crime’ and ‘open borders’]
“We are here today to salute the incredibly brave patriots that keep America safe, the heroes of ICE and CBP,” the president said Monday afternoon at a White House event celebrating the agents that protect the nation’s borders. “To everyone here from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, I want you to let you know that we love you, we support you, we will always have your back. I think you know that.”
“You’re incredible people. You do an unbelievable job. You are not appreciated enough. … We love you, we will always be with you, we will never let you down,” the president told a group of roughly.
The president went on to list the many accomplishments of ICE and CBP agents over the past year, like seizing “more than 2.8 million pounds of illicit, deadly narcotics” and the arrests of “over 127,000 criminal aliens.”
Trump’s comments Monday come amid calls from Democratic lawmakers to abolish ICE. Republicans have used the Democrats’ anti-ICE stand as a campaign point in the lead-up to the November midterm elections.
[Read: Trump makes immigration top midterm campaign issue, hoping to put Dems on ICE]
New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America who defeated incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., in a June primary, ran on a platform of abolishing ICE. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have called for a replacing the agency. Other Democrats in the House and Senate have called for sweeping reforms of the agency, arguing it does not work.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and other Republican congressional leaders attempted to get House Democrats on record voting against a bill to support ICE in mid-July. Democrats, however, did not take the bait. The majority of House Democrats — 133 — voted “present,” with the remainder split. Eighteen Democrats voted in favor the bill and 34 voted against it.
Contrasting his praise for ICE and CBP agents, the president repeatedly targeted Democrats during his roughly 20-minute speech, calling them out for being the party of “open borders” and a party that supports crime over “law and order.”
“We’re going to do very well in the midterms, and this is one of the very big reasons,” the president said. “The fact is people respect law and order. And I think we’re going to have much more of a red wave than a phony blue wave. Blue wave means crime, it means open borders.”
