NYC ICE chief fires back at far-left politicians seeking to abolish agency: 'Change the law'
New York City's top immigration enforcement official has a blunt message for far-left politicians demanding the abolition of ICE: Change the law instead of demonizing federal agents who put their lives on the line enforcing it.
Key points
- The Brooklyn-born, 34-year law enforcement veteran argued that politicians were vilifying agents for carrying out their duties, even as restrictions on local cooperation force ICE to pursue suspects on public streets rather than take them into custody in secure jails.
- Change the law, don't demonize ICE for doing the job that you empowered us to do." The remarks came during a recent Fox News Digital ride-along with ICE in Brooklyn, where agents arrested two men, including one facing a pending felony sexual abuse charge, and another who had served seven years in prison for assault, according to ICE.
- In July, no less than 143 New York elected officials, including 31 of the city's 51 Council members, signed a letter urging congressional Democrats to dismantle the agency, accusing ICE of widespread abuses and portraying it as a threat to public safety and democracy.
INSIDE ICE'S HIGH-STAKES RAIDS TARGETING ILLEGAL MIGRANTS IN NYC AS CHIEF RIPS SANCTUARY LAWS Genalo's rebuke comes amid a widening campaign to abolish ICE and increasingly heated rhetoric directed at federal immigration agents.
Additional details
- Kenneth Genalo, who leads ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in New York City, issued the challenge during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, taking aim at elected officials who have increasingly called to dismantle the agency.
- He questioned why activists would interfere with arrests without knowing the criminal histories of those being targeted, pointing to an operation during the Brooklyn ride-along in which protesters disrupted ICE agents attempting to apprehend an Ecuadorian national facing child sexual abuse charges, according to ICE.
- "If you don't like the job we're doing and the priorities and the people that we're targeting, change the law," Genalo said.
- "We should be standing arm-in-arm with our NYPD brethren, helping the city," Genalo said, recalling a time when ICE worked more closely with local authorities.
- He cited the 9/11 Commission's findings about failures in cooperation and intelligence sharing, drawing a parallel to the restrictions ICE faces today.
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