MAGA loyalist Kari Lake is recirculating a 2018 quote issued by the President of the National ICE Council (Chris Crane), which criticized Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) for seeming to warn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to not follow orders given by then-President Donald Trump.
[Note: Lake is currently running against Gallego for U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema‘s seat in 2024.]
During the Trump administration, the President claimed on Twitter (now X) that on his orders ICE would remove “millions of illegal aliens” and force Hispanics living along the U.S.-Mexico border to authenticate their citizenship. The plan was unprecedented in scope and targeted families in their homes.
Next week ICE will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States. They will be removed as fast as they come in. Mexico, using their strong immigration laws, is doing a very good job of stopping people…….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019
Gallego warned ICE agents: “If you are a US government official and you are deporting Americans be warned. When the worm turns you will not be safe because you were just following orders. You do not have to take part in illegal acts ordered by this President’s administration.”
Gallego’s warning followed an article published in The Washington Post that reported that the Trump administration accused “hundreds, possibly thousands” of Hispanics living near the border of having fraudulent birth certificates and that some with official U.S. birth certificates had been jailed in detention centers.
National ICE Council president Crane responded to Gallego’s warning to ICE agents in a statement: “It should be frightening to every American that a sitting member of Congress would threaten the safety of any person and their family, and incite the public to take acts of violence against them, let alone the lives of those whose job it is to protect us and keep us safe.”
In 2018, @RubenGallego threatened our ICE agents for enforcing our immigration laws.
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 18, 2023
The President of the National ICE Council was forced to issue this statement,
“It should be frightening to every American that a sitting member of Congress would threaten the safety of any… pic.twitter.com/eB16a9LzwZ
Note: The National ICE Council, a worker’s union comprising approximately 6,000 of the 20,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Officers in the U.S., endorsed Trump for president in 2016 and 2020. In 2022, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) decertified the National ICE Council and dissolved the ICE bargaining unit. Crane replied to the decision: “There is no doubt that ICE and DHS leadership worked in unison with corrupt union bosses to make this happen.”
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