Fox News star Laura Ingraham declared on Thursday night that it is “borderline illegal” for Democratic lawmakers to label Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “thugs,” saying comments like that are “beyond irresponsible” and there “has to be accountability here.”
During a Thursday night interview with Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem and ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan, Ingraham brought up remarks made by Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-IL) on the House floor earlier this week about ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents.
“Since taking office, Trump has declared war on our community,” Garcia stated. “Masked ICE and CBP thugs – and I call them thugs because they don’t identify themselves – they have detained parents on their way to work. They have kidnapped U.S. citizens. They have tear-gassed people.”
Garcia has used similar language in recent months while criticizing the mass deportation efforts by the Trump administration. After the president launched “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago this past September, Garcia called it a “declaration of war on an American city” and said “[m]asked thugs kidnapping parents, children, and workers does not make us safer.”
The following month, in response to border patrol agents detaining members of a Chicago alderman’s staff, Garcia took to social media to declare that “we will keep each other safe and ensure these masked thugs are held accountable.”
Prior to airing Garcia’s comments on Thursday night, Ingraham asserted that the American public “voted for mass deportation” when they elected Trump. “But they are trying to change that dynamic now, and it’s all for the media and Democrats’ benefit. Democrats are doing everything they can to paint ICE as the villains,” she added.
Turning to Noem after playing the clip of Garcia, the Fox News host and anti-immigration hawk suggested that the Illinois congressman should potentially face jail time over his remarks on Capitol Hill.
“Madam Secretary, I believe those comments are actually beyond irresponsible,” Ingraham fumed. “They are borderline illegal because those are effectively endangering the lives of the ICE agents on the streets. Are they not? They have targets on their back because of those comments.”
Noem unsurprisingly agreed with the conservative host, saying Garcia’s comments are “blatant lies” and “portraying ICE officers that way is really unprecedented in this country.” She went on to describe the remarks as “history-making” before claiming that ICE agents are “facing an 8000 percent increase in violence against themselves.” (The DHS secretary was referring to the purported increase in death threats to ICE that her department has repeatedly cited.)
After the head of the DHS groused that Democratic lawmakers are “encouraging” violence against ICE and CBP officials with their rhetoric and have even “been out there laying their hands on law enforcement officers,” Ingraham called for action to be taken.
“I think there has to be accountability here. If there is not accountability, this will continue to happen, and lives will be lost. We have already had incidents where agents were shot at,” the Fox host concluded.
Meanwhile, recent data shows that most immigrants who have been arrested in high-profile city crackdowns – specifically in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. – do not have a criminal record.
In the Chicago area, for instance, two-thirds of those swept up by the multi-week ICE operation had never been charged with a crime. During the Washington crackdown, 84 percent of immigrants arrested had no criminal charges on their record. Additionally, it’s been reported that hundreds of American citizens have been held by immigration agents – some of whom have been kicked, assaulted and detained for days.
Amid the aggressive mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration, which has featured an influx of masked ICE agents flooding the streets of large cities, polls have shown that the American public has grown increasingly dissatisfied with immigration enforcement.
A Daily Mail/JL Partners poll released late last month found that ICE only has a 34 percent approval rating, while a separate YouGov survey showed that a solid majority of Americans disapproved of the immigration enforcement agency.
