Three former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials are running for Congress to change the way Washington handles immigration enforcement and government spending.
Ron Vitiello, former acting ICE director during the Trump Administration; John Fabbricatore, former ICE Field Office Director; and Victor Avila, retired special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, want to bring their federal law enforcement experience dealing with cartels and criminals to Washington, where they hope to fix the immigration system, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
All three cited the illegal immigration surge that’s occurred under the Biden Administration as a problem that needs solutions. (RELATED: ‘Abolish Borders’ Activist Says She Met With Top Biden ICE Official)
In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol recorded more than 2.2 million migrant encounters at the southern border, according to federal data. The following fiscal year, agents recorded more than 2 million encounters.
“I really can’t watch what’s going on as it relates to our international relations, budget deficits and then, obviously, the border,” Vitiello, who is running to represent Virginia in the Senate, said. “We’re destroying ourselves under this current surge that we’re under, and I just can’t stand by watching anymore. I spent my entire adult life trying to make America safe.”
Fabbricatore served as the chief of the Denver ICE office, which he believes prepared him for a role as an elected official. He is seeking to represent Colorado’s 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The reason why I chose to run is after I retired I continued to see that there were a lot of issues with the border,” Fabbricatore told the DCNF. “People were not directing their attention on what would occur if more people came in the country and the effects that would occur.”
“There was just always so much inefficiency that I saw on how we were using taxpayer dollars that that always really irked me,” Fabbricatore said.
In this handout provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Foreign nationals were arrested this week during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens. (Photo by Bryan Cox/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images)
Avila, who is vying to unseat Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, has faced tough battles and is ready to fight them in the halls of Congress. During his time as a federal agent, Avila was once ambushed by the Mexican Los Zetas drug cartel. In that ambush, he suffered multiple gunshot wounds and his colleague, Special Agent Jaime Zapata, was killed.
With negotiations over a border-security funding deal still ongoing in Congress, the three candidates offered what they would consider or not consider for the spending package.
“You need to end catch and release and you need to go back to Remain in Mexico,” Avila said. “If you would include those two things in this budget bill, then I would consider signing it.”
“Securing the border is vastly important, but that secondary piece has to be interior enforcement,” Fabbricatore said. “Congress controls the purse strings. So, no money that’s being given to states for infrastructure improvement and grants, that money would be withheld until those states got in line and weren’t offering incentives to illegal immigrants.”
Vitiello emphasized that the Biden Administration has put the onus on Congress to fix the crisis at the southern border, while neglecting to make necessary changes at the executive level. He contrasted that to Donald Trump’s presidency, when the White House took a series of executive actions to crack down on illegal immigration.
“It’d be great if Congress codified MPP [Migrant Protection Protocols],” Vitiello said of the Trump-era policy that forced certain migrants who crossed the southern border illegally to await immigration proceedings in Mexico that the Biden Administration scrapped.
“Donald Trump didn’t get any relief from the Hill. Congress did not pass any new immigration law. They didn’t,” Vitiello said. “There were differences in appropriations. He was very focused on building the wall on the border, but the Migrant Protection Protocols and a real enthusiasm for controlling the border is what solved the last surge in 2019. This administration refuses to use those tools.”
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