The Vice President of US Border Patrol Council has criticized actress-turned-gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon for calling the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency a ‘terrorist organization’.
Speaking on Fox New’s The Story Friday, Art del Cueto called the former Sex and the City star’s branding of ICE ‘disgusting’ and told her to ‘go back to history class’.
‘They’re defending our county, that’s what they’re doing,’ Del Cueto said. ‘And to be portrayed as Nazis or to be attacked….it’s disgusting. They need to go back to history class.’
This comes after Nixon made a powerful speech a New York City church Thursday and said: ‘ICE has strayed so far away from its mission. It is supposed to be here to keep Americans safe but what it has turned into, frankly, is a terrorist organization of its own that is terrorizing people who are coming to this country.’
She later doubled down on her remarks in a tweet, calling for the agency to be abolished and its branded President Trump an ‘egomaniacal leader.’
Art del Cueto, US Border Patrol Council Vice President, criticized Cynthia Nixon for calling the Immigration and Custom Enforcement Agency a ‘terrorist organization’
Actress-turned-gubernatorial challenger Cynthia Nixon branded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency a ‘terrorist organization’ Thursday (pictured speaking in New York on June 18)
Nixon later doubled down on her remarks, tweeting: ‘ICE is a terrorist organization, and its egomaniacal leader is Donald Trump’
‘They were probably sleeping during history class, they had nothing better to do,’ the Border Patrol Council member told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. ‘They just went ahead and fell asleep and decided to pick up a real quick one liner so they could make headlines and sell some books.’
Nixon made the comments while at St. Paul and St. Andrew United Methodist Church, in New York City, where an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant Debora Vasquez-Barrios, a mother of two US-born kids, is taking shelter after being threatened with deportation.
She was speaking amid the heartbreaking reports of families being ripped apart by ICE agents at the border, following Donald Trump’s zero tolerance policy – which meant that all immigrants entering the country illegally, including asylum seekers, were criminally prosecuted.
‘I think the media is the one who tries to portray us as the evil people, or the Nazis as they said. I’m still disgusted by that word,’ Del Cueto said.
‘But the reality is we have hard working men and women out there,’ he added. ‘It’s frustrating because of the lies that are being portrayed.’
Nixon is urging supporters to join her petition to abolish the agency.
‘ICE is a terrorist organization, and its egomaniacal leader is Donald Trump. Sign our petition to #AbolishICE.’ she tweeted.
Earlier that day, Nixon had appeared on ABC’s ‘The View’ where she called for an end to ICE.
‘I think we need to abolish ICE,’ she said. ‘That seems really clear. They have strayed so far from the interests of the American people and the interests of humanity.’
The policy saw thousands of children taken from their parents and placed in detention centers as the law dictates that kids cannot be held in prison for more than a short time. Trump has since reversed some of these changes.
Earlier that day, Nixon had appeared on ABC’s ‘The View’ where she called for an end to ICE
Incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that he doesn’t favor abolishing the agency
However, he did announce plans to file a multi-agency lawsuit against the Trump administration for ‘violating the Constitutional rights of immigrant children and their families’
The Sex and the City actress is challenging incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination for New York governor.
Cuomo has said that he doesn’t favor abolishing the agency.
However, he did announce plans to file a multi-agency lawsuit against the Trump administration for ‘violating the Constitutional rights of immigrant children and their families who have been separated at the border.’
The idea of abolishing the agency has become increasingly popular among progressives including Brian Fallon, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign, and Eric Holder, President Barack Obama’s attorney general.
‘ICE operates as an unaccountable deportation force,’ Fallon tweeted. ‘Dems running in 2020 should campaign on ending the agency in its current form.’
The New York gubernatorial primary is on September 13. Current polls have Nixon trailing Cuomo, 61 percent to 26 percent.