President Donald Trump defended U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday against growing calls for the agency to be abolished, suggesting that the Democrats speaking out against it will pay a political price in November’s midterm elections.
“When we have an ‘infestation’ of MS-13 GANGS in certain parts of our country, who do we send to get them out? ICE!” the president wrote online Tuesday morning. “They are tougher and smarter than these rough criminal elelments [sic] that bad immigration laws allow into our country. Dems do not appreciate the great job they do! Nov.”
Calls to do away with ICE have grown in recent weeks along with a swelling outcry over the Trump administration’s immigration policy that resulted in thousands of children being separated from parents who brought them illegally across the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump signed an executive order last month to end the practice, but it is unclear how quickly children and parents are being reunited.
