The House passed a resolution on Wednesday to support the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and rebuke calls to abolish it.
The House passed the resolution, H.R. 990, with a vote tally of 244-35, with 133 lawmakers voting present. Nearly all Republicans voted for the resolution. Roughly 131 Democrats voted present for the resolution to avoid a tough vote that would cast the Democratic Party as a party of open borders.
The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), would express continued support for ICE, denounce calls for the abolishment of ICE, and support the efforts of all federal agencies, state law enforcement, and military personnel who enforce the country’s borders.
Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) said in a statement on Wednesday:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents keep American communities and families safe. They defend against gang violence, drug trafficking, terrorism, and other dangerous criminals. It is their duty to faithfully execute the laws as they are written, and they put their lives on the line every day to fulfill that mission.
Last week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced that he will bring up the House Democrats’ “abolish ICE” legislation ahead of Congress’s August recess. The move would expose Democrats who would vote ahead of the 2018 midterm for trying to end all immigration enforcement. After McCarthy put the bill up for a vote, Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) promised to oppose their resolution to abolish ICE.
Jayapal said in an interview with Vox, “We force that conversation, we take that hour, we have that conversation, and then we’ll all vote no on it, because we’re all clear that it’s not a serious attempt to do anything.”
House Republicans then pivoted towards passing legislation that would affirm support for ICE and decry any calls to abolish the country’s immigration and customs agency.
A House Republican leadership source told Breitbart News this week, “The Democrats think they have us in check. We are about to put them in checkmate.”
Breitbart News reported that if Democrats abolished ICE back in 2013, there would have been at least 1.64 million illegal aliens released into American neighborhoods rather than being deported.
A Harvard/Harris poll suggested that three-in-four swing voters oppose the Democrats’ plan to abolish ICE and nearly 60 percent of Democrats do not want the agency to be ended.
“They won’t be able to go on record and support ICE. Their base would kill them. They will be split. The Dems won’t know what to do,” the House Republican leadership source added.
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