Acting ICE Dir. Todd Lyons: Violence Against ICE Officers and Agents Has Gone Up 400 Percent

CAMPOS-DUFFY: “I have to tell you, my blood boils. None of those people were trying to get into the detention centers for children that were there, and then released to people eventually for which there were no DNA tests. So they care about these MS-13 criminals who are put into this detention center, no care at all for the innocent children who came over the border illegally and were detained. They didn’t care about the conditions for the children.”
LYONS: “No. Thanks, Rachel. Yeah, and you make a great point. You know, you didn’t see anyone out there having those protests under the last administration. There’s almost 1.8 million people incarcerated in United States. If they think there’s such a problem with the prison system, why aren’t they out there protesting for their constituents there being held for crimes in American prisons, right? These are activists, these are people that are taking propaganda and they’re using it against the men and women who I represent, the brave men and women of ICE who are out there every day doing what’s right here in the United States. Men and women of ICE are out there taking public safety threats off the streets. When I see this, it makes me so mad because threats to ICE officers, violence against ICE officers and agents are up 400%. This type of grandstanding doesn’t help anyone. This puts my folks at risk, this puts the staff at that facility at risk. This puts the people at Newark at risk, and it puts the protesters at risk. Why would you do this for people that are known gang members, criminals, TDA, violent terrorists? This is just completely wrong.”