[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 31, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5463-S5464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I want to take a few moments to 
discuss the brave men and women who serve in U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement.
  I had the privilege of visiting the ICE office in my hometown of 
Louisville this past Friday and of meeting with these agents in person.
  This is a Federal agency that was created following the attacks of 
September 11, 2001. It is responsible for several key aspects of our 
homeland security: enforcing our immigration laws, combating terrorism, 
and preventing people and goods from moving illegally throughout our 
country. Its record on these vital missions is staggering. In fiscal 
year 2017, ICE recorded more than 105,000 arrests of aliens with known 
criminal convictions on their records--nearly 4,600 convictions for 
robbery, more than 3,700 for sexual assault, and more than 1,500 for 
homicide.
  We are talking about the men and women in law enforcement who 
confront all of this in order to keep all of us safe. This is hardly a 
controversial mission; it is essential. We are lucky these agents are 
willing to serve. The Nation is better off for it. So I wanted to pay 
these agents a visit in Louisville and thank them firsthand for their 
work.
  Recently, they have fallen into the crosshairs of some extremely 
vocal, far-left special interest groups, groups that explicitly say--
now get this; this is what they say--that our Nation would be better 
off with no borders and no immigration laws of any kind. That is what 
these people advocate. They are slandering ICE agents. They are calling 
the agency ``an unaccountable strike force executing a campaign of 
ethnic cleansing'' and even ``a genuine threat to democracy.'' That is 
what they are calling ICE agents. According to these leftwing groups, 
the threat to democracy is not the violent criminals who are illegally 
present in our country but, rather, the brave law enforcement officers 
who volunteer to take them on.
  Well, fringe political movements are nothing new. You can find a few 
Americans who will argue almost any side of any issue. What is new--
what does get my attention--is when prominent, leading Democratic 
politicians, including a number of our colleagues right here in the 
Senate, adopt some of these extremist views wholesale and let the far-
left talking points form the basis of their own policy positions.
  The junior Senator from New York said recently that if Democrats 
regain the House and Senate, the first thing they should do is ``get 
rid of ICE.''
  The senior Senator from Massachusetts pointed to ``replacing ICE'' as 
the first priority of a top-to-bottom rebuild of America's immigration 
system.
  The mayor of New York City calls the agency ``no longer acceptable.''
  A Member of the U.S. House of Representatives likened it to--get 
this--``the Gestapo of the United States.''

[[Page S5464]]

The gestapo of the United States? I am really not sure where to begin 
in responding to this foaming hysteria.
  It is one thing for a few protesters and Socialist hecklers who want 
open borders and the elimination of all immigration laws to adopt a 
slogan as silly and ill-considered as ``abolish ICE,'' but it is 
something else entirely when U.S. Senators are so eager to please these 
leftwing extremists that they join that chorus--join in denigrating the 
men and women of U.S. law enforcement. This is the moment we are in--
that of leading Democrats' taking cues from the open-borders Socialist 
crowd and proposing to eliminate the very agency that enforces Federal 
immigration laws within the interior of our country. Talk about a 
political stunt.
  The American people want nothing to do with these dangerous antics. 
My neighbors and constituents in Kentucky certainly don't. So my fellow 
Republicans and I will continue to proudly stand with ICE, stand with 
the rule of law, and stand with all of the American families who would 
rather have fewer drugs and less crime in the communities in which they 
are raising their children.

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