House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told reporters Thursday that the left “really jumped the sharks” in their efforts to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and gloated that it’s part of the reason he feels good about Republicans chances in the midterm elections.
“You want to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency? This is the agency that gets gangs out of our communities, that helps prevent drugs from going into our schools, that rescues people from human trafficking,” he said. “They want to get rid of this agency? It’s the craziest position I’ve ever seen, and they’re tripping over themselves to move too far to the left. They’re out of the mainstream of America and that’s one of the reasons why I feel good about this fall.”
The legislation — to shutter the agency, launch a probe into its agents’ conduct and develop a committee to review how the U.S. should process undocumented immigrants seeking asylum — has not yet been publicly released, but is being propelled by one of Ryan’s Wisconsin colleagues, Rep. Mark Pocan, according to the Washington Post.
“The ICE brand has been so damaged by the President that it can no longer accomplish its original mission,” Pocan told the Post. “Even ICE agents recognize that ICE doesn’t do what it was intended to.”
The movement to abolish the agency has been embraced by liberal activists for months and has only recently garnered mainstream attention as public outrage grows over the separation of migrant families at the border.
