U.S. Border Patrol agents who have been temporarily deployed to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Chicago and Portland will remain on the job if the government shuts down this week.
Border Patrol’s roughly 20,000 frontline agents will remain on the job if Congress fails to avert a government shutdown by Tuesday night, including agents who have been pulled from the border to help with security outside ICE detention buildings in Illinois and Oregon.
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“The Border Patrol has deployed agents and resources to Chicago and Portland to assist ICE with their operations,” a Border Patrol official authorized to speak with media wrote in an email to the Washington Examiner. “For the potential shutdown – Yes, Border Patrol agents are essential and will continue to work at the border and in Chicago/Portland in support of ICE operations.”
Late last week, Border Patrol sent an unspecified number of its agents to Chicago and Portland due to violence outside ICE facilities after a mass shooting that killed one detainee and injured two others in Dallas last week.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Sept. 26 that Department of Justice law enforcement would be dispatched to assist and prevent violence, such as vandalism and arson at facilities, and attacks against employees.
The Department of Homeland Security has also raced to expand security at all ICE facilities nationwide.
A DHS spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner that the federal department would not tolerate targeted violence against its law enforcement personnel and has begun to put a plan into place to beef up security at and around ICE field offices and detention sites from coast to coast.
Nationwide, ICE has 122 detention facilities that it uses to hold illegal immigrants who are in custody and going through deportation proceedings in court, as well as more than 150 offices.
On Sunday, at least four people were arrested and now face federal criminal charges for involvement in violence targeting ICE’s detention center in Chicago.
Border Patrol agents were spotted over the weekend in Chicago, walking downtown on Michigan Avenue.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) maintained in a recent press conference that “none of what [President] Trump is doing is making Illinois safer.”
Statistics from ICE revealed that federal immigration authorities have arrested more than 550 criminals in Chicago who are illegal immigrants since January.
DHS WILL IMMEDIATELY BEGIN INCREASING SECURITY AT ALL ICE FACILITIES: MCLAUGHLIN
Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social on Sept. 27 that he had directed the National Guard to send soldiers into Portland to shield an ICE facility from attacks from violent protesters.
Hundreds of protesters showed up at an ICE facility in Portland Sunday afternoon, where Border Patrol agents were on site to assist their federal counterparts with perimeter security.