President Joe Biden is effectively trying to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, tasked with enforcing federal immigration law, with a series of “sanctuary country” orders, House Republicans say.
Led by Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), 45 House Republicans are urging Biden to rescind a series of sanctuary country orders that prevent ICE agents from arresting and deporting most illegal aliens living in the United States.
“We cannot allow this administration to continue this transparent effort to in effect abolish ICE and protect all illegal aliens from deportation — putting the safety of our communities and our national security at risk,” Rosendale said in a statement. “For the sake of our nation, Secretary Mayorkas must rescind these memoranda and resign, or face impeachment.”
Among the orders, Biden has instructed ICE agents that they are only to arrest, detain, and deport illegal aliens who are considered “a current threat to public safety.”
Likewise, Biden issued a list of “protected areas” for illegal aliens last month that prevent ICE agents from arresting suspects in places like schools, healthcare facilities, places of worship, playgrounds, childcare centers, school bus stops, crisis centers, homeless shelters, rehab facilities, food banks, disaster relief centers, funerals, weddings, protests, rallies, and parades.
Most significantly, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has ended workplace immigration enforcement — indicating that DHS will protect illegal aliens who take U.S. jobs and employers who illegally hire them.
ICE raids have been proven to be incremental in boosting U.S. wages and job opportunities for Americans while ensuring that employers are not skirting federal immigration and labor laws.
“These are hardly the first actions the Biden Administration has taken to disempower and dismantle ICE,” the House Republicans write:
On President Biden’s very first day in office, DHS Acting Secretary David Pekoske issued a memorandum implementing a 100-day moratorium on deportations, rescinding six Trump-era DHS memoranda that fortified immigration enforcement, and establishing interim enforcement priorities that restricted the apprehension and removal of illegal aliens. [Emphasis added].
These recent memoranda will inevitably serve as additional pull factors to incentivize illegal aliens to come to America — at a time when 1,734,686 encounters with illegal aliens were reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the southern border during Fiscal Year 2021 — the highest level of any year on record. Now more than ever, we simply cannot afford to implement policies that will act as a magnet for illegal aliens to make the treacherous journey to this country. [Emphasis added].
While not directly giving in to the radical Left’s calls to abolish ICE, by halting immigration enforcement actions conducted by the agency it is clear you are seeking to in effect abolish ICE from within. Your recent actions will further exacerbate the ongoing humanitarian, public health, and national security crisis taking place at our southern border and further incentivize lawlessness. We strongly urge you rescind these misguided memoranda, faithfully enforce our nation’s immigration laws, and empower ICE personnel to continue the critical work they do. [Emphasis added].
The orders, combined, help big business and other employers inflate the U.S. labor market to keep wages suppressed for America’s working and middle class who are forced to compete against a growing number of cheaper, off-the-books foreign workers.
Recent research by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) noted mass immigration’s impact on dragging down wages and job opportunities for Americans. The research found that policies that permit employers to hire illegal aliens “will likely make it increasingly difficult to draw more Americans back into the labor market.”
Meanwhile, nearly 14 million Americans remain jobless but all want full-time work with high wages and competitive benefits. An additional 4.5 million Americans are working part-time jobs but want full-time employment.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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