2-Jul-2018 - Earlier this year we shared a post about how California was threatening businesses that were cooperating with ICE, therefore putting ICE officers and local communities at risk because agents have to arrest illegal immigrants out in the community.

And now these calls from Congress, media and protesters screeching to abolish ICE and blockading office buildings ... and Border Patrol agents and their families being threatened with physical violence are just insane.

As the Washington Examiner explained last week, Thomas Homan, ICE director and 34-year law enforcement veteran said, "It's insulting that a member of Congress would say 'abolish ICE' when we're enforcing the laws that Congress enacted. They give us a set of laws that we're supposed to enforce and they give me the money to do it, then say 'abolish ICE'. We’re doing what you told us to do."

Homan said President Trump's executive order in January 2017 mandated he carry out all existing immigration laws whereas former President Barack Obama had instructed ICE to prioritize who it went after.

Even so, ICE deportation numbers during the middle of Obama's administration in Fiscal Year 2012 — a total of 409,849 people removed — was significantly higher than Trump's first year number of 226,119.

And Homan argued 92% of all ICE arrests in FY 2017 either had a criminal arrest or conviction and were not being picked up just for immigration violations.

"We saved 904 children through our investigations from being exploited, being raped, being molested, being filmed," he added.

According to Townhall, in April 2016, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley warned about catch-and-release policies enabling the smuggling industry.  In the past, any non-Mexican or Canadian individual illegally crossing the border with a child was considered a family unit, processed and released into the interior. Current zero-tolerance policies require they be detained until prosecution.

“A recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report confirmed that human smuggling rings are exploiting children in order to prevent the detention of the undocumented immigrants they’re smuggling into the United States. They are pairing children with unrelated adults, knowing adults who enter the United States with children won’t be detained,” Grassley said.

Fast-forward to 2018 and this is still the case.

“If there's no documentation to confirm the claimed relationship between an adult and a child, we [separate] if the parent is a national security, public or safety risk, including when there are criminal charges at issue and it may not be appropriate to maintain the family in detention together,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said.

“We also separate a parent and child if the adult is suspected of human trafficking. There have been cases where minors have been used and trafficked by unrelated adults in an effort to avoid detention,” she continued. “And I'd stop here to say, in the last five months, we have a 314% increase in adults and children arriving at the border, fraudulently claiming to be a family unit. This is, obviously, of concern.”

Current and former Border Patrol and ICE agents who have worked extensively on human trafficking cases continue to have these concerns. Worse, they’re alarmed the majority of current media coverage is downplaying the smuggling angle.

"You can never really verify who the parents really are," former Border Patrol and Customs Special Agent Jason Piccolo said. "Especially in light of adult males showing up with kids."

In 2015, Piccolo blew the whistle on the Obama administration releasing unaccompanied minors to unvetted, criminal sponsors, but he was fired the day after he told HHS that thousands of children were being released with pedophiles and criminals.

OANN has more about Piccolo (former BP Special Agent and Iraq veteran) in this video ... (continue reading below vid)

Townhall reports smugglers are hired for as much as $20,000 per person and pair unrelated adults to unrelated children. The entire purpose is to claim asylum, valid or not, with the understanding that “family units” are apprehended and then released to the interior of the United States. Since 2008, asylum claims have ballooned by 1,700 percent according to DHS data.

Piccolo suggests a joint effort with USCIS, DHS and FBI is necessary for vetting and that a joint task force must be developed to do interviews and interrogations of adults traveling with children.

“If you really want to fix this problem you have to really vet these adults,” he said.  

Currently, DHS and HHS have detained approximately 2,000 minors separately from adults.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)  was created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the former U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. ICE's mission is executed through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes and focuses on smart immigration enforcement, preventing terrorism and combating the illegal movement of people and goods.

The men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol are responsible for enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws and regulations. On a typical day, CBP welcomes nearly one million visitors, screens more than 67,000 cargo containers, arrests more than 1,100 individuals, and seizes nearly 6 tons of illicit drugs. Annually, CBP facilitates an average of more than $3 trillion in legitimate trade while enforcing U.S. trade laws.

As of Saturday, 1-Jul-2018, Ronald Vitiello took over as acting director of ICE (in photo at top), but he started his career with the U.S. Border Patrol in 1985 so he brings extensive experience from the field and has held many leadership roles.

ICE, Border Patrol and other agencies are NOT the problem ~ they are just enforcing existing laws that were enacted by Congress.

Congress needs to do its job and change the laws THEY wrote that continue to allow these human traffickers, child molesters and others to take advantage of known loopholes involving our border and immigration laws.

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Sources: Washington Examiner, Townhall, OANN, ICE.gov and CBP.gov