President Donald Trump slammed a pair of Democratic lawmakers for introducing a bill that would require federal immigration law enforcement officers to not wear face masks and have legible IDs while on the job, saying the lawmakers must "hate our country" or they "wouldn't be saying that."
"Two Democratic senators now, Cory Booker and Alex Padilla, have a new bill out. They want to require CBP and ICE officers to have legible IDs, and they don't want CBP or ICE officers covering their faces. Would you ever sign that?" Fox News' Peter Doocy asked Trump during a Wednesday lunch with African presidents.
"Well, they wouldn't be saying that if they didn't hate our country," Trump responded before praising officers with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "And they obviously do. I'm surprised that they would do it knowing a little bit about them."
"These officers are doing a tremendous job," he continued. "They're great patriots. If you expose them because of, you know, statements like have been made by Democrat and others on the left, usually mostly, I think, probably exclusively, you put them in great danger, tremendous danger."
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Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California introduced a bill Tuesday, dubbed the Visible Identification Standards for Immigration-Based Law Enforcement (VISIBLE) Act, that would require CBP and ICE agents to wear an identification badge while working and that they not wear face masks that conceal their identity.
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"For weeks, Americans have watched federal agents with no visible identification detain people off the streets and instill fear in communities across the country," Booker said of the bill Tuesday. "Reports of individuals impersonating ICE officers have only increased the risk to public and officer safety. The lack of visible identification and uniform standards for immigration enforcement officers has created confusion, stoked fear, and undermined public trust in law enforcement."
Federal immigration law enforcement officers have been targeted repeatedly in recent days, including at least two ambushes in Texas, and protesters clashing with federal officers at the Portland, Oregon, ICE facility after Trump signed the "big beautiful bill" into law Friday.
Anti-ICE rhetoric especially intensified in June, when federal officials descended on Los Angeles to conduct raids to deport illegal immigrants, which was met by protests that devolved into riots last month as local Democratic leaders condemned the Trump administration for its immigration policies.
"And it's sort of funny when people picket in front of Columbia, in front of Harvard and they have masks on more than masks, I mean, you can't see anything. Nobody complains about that. But when a patriot who works for ICE or Border Patrol puts a mask on so that they won't recognize him and his family, so they can lead a little bit of a normal life after having worked so hard and so dangerously," Trump continued in his response to Doocy about why federal agents should not conduct their work unmasked. "There's a problem with that."
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Trump continued that Democrats have become "somewhat deranged" and added that wealthy people on the left are likely funding rioters to attack federal law enforcement officers.
"This is the problem with the Democrats," Trump said. "They have a lot of bad things going on in their heads. They've become very… they've lost their confidence, number one. And they're really, they've become somewhat deranged. I want to do whatever necessary to protect our great law enforcement people. And they are right at the top of the list."
Doocy asked Trump about the ambush in Alvarado, Texas, on the Fourth of July that led to the arrest of 10 rioters.
"President Trump in Alvarado, Texas, a few days ago, 10 people wearing all black allegedly set off fireworks outside an ICE office to lure the officers out so they could ambush them, shoot at them. They had guns and vests and two-way radios. Do you think that this was an isolated incident, or do you think there's a national threat of a left-wing militia that is targeting ICE and CBP?" Doocy asked.
Trump shot back that "some very stupid people on the left" are funding rioters who are targeting the officers.
"I think you have some very stupid people on the left who have some money that are making it available to these people," Trump said. "Because you look at the guns they had, they were brand new. You look at even the clothing they were wearing, it looked like it just came out of some military shop. So you have some very stupid people that, if anything ever happened, they'd be the first to go."
"They'd be the first ones hit," Trump added.
