WASHINGTON— U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), and David Perdue (R-GA) today introduced a resolution “Opposing the targeted harassment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and employees and reaffirming the fundamental principle that public safety services should be provided without discrimination.” The resolution also calls on Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler “to immediately resign so that a leader committed to protecting all law-abiding citizens and public servants from harm can assume the duties of Mayor of Portland.”
“A politician deciding who gets help in an emergency based on politics is the kind of thing that happens in banana republics—not a democracy that ensures equal protection under the law,” said Dr. Cassidy. “For Mayor Wheeler to abandon this principle along with people being threatened by a violent mob is unacceptable. He needs to resign immediately.”
“I was honored to join President Trump at the White House this week to stand with the men and women of ICE,” said Senator Perdue. “Our ICE law enforcement officers put their lives on the line every day to combat terrorism, keep drugs off our streets, and make our communities safer. It is unconscionable and un-American for an elected official to prevent ICE from doing its job. In fact, we should do all we can to support our ICE officers in their efforts to protect all Americans.”
In fiscal year 2017, ICE arrested more than 127,000 criminals responsible for more than 76,000 dangerous drug offenses, 48,000 assault offenses, more than 11,000 weapon offenses, more than 5,000 sexual assault offenses, more than 2,000 kidnapping offenses, and more than 1,800 homicide offenses. In the fight against the opioid epidemic last year, ICE seized 2,370 pounds of fentanyl and 6,967 pounds of heroin. ICE also rescued 518 human trafficking victims and 904 child exploitation victims last year.
The full text of the resolution is below.
RESOLUTION
Opposing the targeted harassment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and employees and reaffirming the fundamental principle that public safety services should be provided without discrimination.
Whereas Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a candidate for Congress from New York, welcomed the support of Occupy ICE LA, a group that called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (in this preamble referred to as “ICE”) a “genocidal ethnic cleansing machine” and “the Gestapo”, and posted photos of ICE employees on the internet, encouraging activists to “[k]now their faces, never allow them to feel safe”;
Whereas Cynthia Nixon, a candidate Governor of New York, stated that ICE “is a terrorist organization”;
Whereas a mob of leftwing activists recently surrounded an ICE office in southwest Portland, Oregon, trapping ICE employees inside the building;
Whereas ICE employees were subjected to doxxing and violent threats after their social media profiles, phone numbers, and home addresses were posted on the internet by leftwing activists;
Whereas an ICE officer was reportedly followed and “confronted when he went to pick up his daughter from summer camp”, and another “had his name and photo plastered on flyers outside his home accusing him of being part of the ‘Gestapo’,” according to the Wall Street Journal;
Whereas the Mayor of Portland, Oregon, Ted Wheeler, barred the Portland Police Bureau from coming to the aid of ICE employees, stating, “I do not want the @PortlandPolice to be engaged or sucked into a conflict, particularly from a Federal agency that I believe is on the wrong track … If they are looking for a bailout from this mayor, they are looking in the wrong place.”;
Whereas the ICE office in southwest Portland was shut down for days due to threats and occupation;
Whereas leftwing activists have similarly harassed and threatened ICE employees and targeted ICE offices for closure around the country;
Whereas the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council’s representative stated in a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler that “[y]our current policy forbidding Portland law enforcement agencies from assisting employees of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who request law enforcement assistance while at or away from work” leaves “them vulnerable to violence, harassment and even death … Your policy has created a zone of terror and lawlessness. We ask that you end your policy of not responding to calls for police services from ICE employees immediately. Our membership has been the subjected to threats of physical violence and harassment since you announced your policy.”; and
Whereas the President of the Portland Police Association, Daryl Turner, stated, “There is no place for personal, political bias when it comes to providing public safety services to our communities. In that respect, our Mayor, who is also our Police Commissioner, has failed miserably.”:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate—
(1) expresses solidarity with the men and women of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who bring human traffickers, drug traffickers, gang members, and violent criminals to justice;
(2) condemns the doxxing and targeted harassment of all officers and employees of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the violent threats they continue to endure from leftwing activists; and
(3) calls on the Mayor of Portland, Oregon, Ted Wheeler, to immediately resign so that a leader committed to protecting all law-abiding citizens and public servants from harm can assume the duties of Mayor of Portland.
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