ICE Union Chief: Enforcement Must Come Before Amnesty

President of the National ICE Council, Chris Crane, hosted a conference call with the media on Wednesday and said the current plan being drawn up by the Senate Gang of Eight will do nothing to fix our broken immigration system. Crane referred to a statement made by Sen. Chuck Schumer on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when he said that legalization will come before enforcement.

Crane started his conference call by quoting Sen. Shumer directly: “We’ve come to a basic agreement, which is that first, people will be legalized…Then, we will make sure the border is secure.”

Crane said that if the legalization of the nation’s 11 million illegal aliens comes before the enforcement provisions kick in, the country will face the same situation in the future. 

Here’s my promise for America, if we don’t take care of the enforcement side of this first, it will never happen. The only thing that will happen will be that 11 million illegal aliens will be legalized and 10-20 years from now the nation will again be facing the influx of 10-20 million illegal aliens and all the problems and expenses that come with that.

— ICE Union President Chris Crane

Crane continued to break down the current assignments for all 7,600 ICE agents to demonstrate that few are actually assigned to enforce current immigration laws, and those that are, are limited in what they can and can’t do when it comes to enforcing the law.

Last week, Crane sent a letter to the Gang of Eight requesting a meeting with the group to discuss the pending legislation. A spokesman for one Gang Member, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) told the Washington Examiner that the Gang of Eight would not meet with representatives from the ICE Union.