在针对美国移民及海关执法局(ICE)的一片抗议声浪中，美国副总统彭斯星期五访问该机构总部，他与川普总统一样赞扬了移民执法工作，并宣布白宫全面支持ICE。
美国移民及海关执法局(ICE)成立于2003年，隶属当时新设立的美国国土安全部。根据《纽约时报》的说法，在奥巴马总统执政期间，ICE、特别是负责拘捕和遣返美国境内非法移民的执法与递解行动处主要关心的是递解那些已经犯有“严重罪行”的人。
但是在移民问题上持强硬立场的川普总统扩大了该机构的执法范围，批准他们抓捕任何没有恰当文件而非法滞留美国的人，不管这些人是否有犯罪记录。
几名民主党领袖人物，包括来自纽约的吉利布兰德参议员和来自麻萨诸塞州的沃伦参议员最近呼吁取消ICE。她们两人都被视为是有可能在2020年代表民主党竞选总统的人。
沃伦星期六在脸书上说：“总统采取的很不道德的行动表明，我们需要自上而下重建我们的移民制度，先要以反映我们价值观的机构取代ICE。”
吉利布兰德称该机构是“遣返队”。
星期五，彭斯谴责了这些说法。他一再称该机构的员工是“英雄”。
彭斯对ICE雇员说，他们可以放心，川普政府“永远也不会取消ICE”。他提到了ICE打击美国国内犯罪帮派、特别是MS-13团伙的努力。
Amid a wave of backlash against the agency, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday visited the headquarters of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, echoing President Donald Trump’s praise and proclaiming the administration’s full support of the agency.
ICE was established in 2003, under the then-new U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During the administration of President Barack Obama, ICE — particularly its Enforcement and Removal Operations department, which is charged with detaining and deporting illegal immigrants inside the U.S. — was primarily concerned with the removal of illegal immigrants, who already had committed “serious crimes,” according to The New York Times.
Yet President Trump, an immigration hardliner, has expanded the agency’s scope, authorizing them to go after anyone who is in the country without the proper documentation — therefore illegally — regardless of criminal record.
Several leading Democrats, including U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have in recent weeks called for the abolition of ICE. Both Warren and Gillibrand are thought of as potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 election.
“The President’s deeply immoral actions have made it obvious that we need to rebuild our immigration system from top to bottom, starting by replacing ICE with something that reflects our values,” Warren wrote in a Facebook post Saturday.
Gillibrand called the agency a “deportation force.”
On Friday, Pence decried these claims, repeatedly calling the agency’s employees “heroes.”
Pence assured the agency’s employees that the Trump administration “would never abolish ICE,” citing the organization’s efforts in curbing gang crime within the country, particularly from MS-13.