Ron Vitiello to Newsmax: ICE Enforcement Hinges on Cooperation

Immigration enforcement efforts will keep moving if federal agents continue ramping up arrests with stronger support from state and local law enforcement, and if the Justice Department increases prosecutions for people who attack or obstruct ICE officers, Ron Vitiello, a senior adviser for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told Newsmax Saturday.

"It's something that needs to continue as it relates to the activity and the arrests that those agents are making, in cooperation with state and local law enforcement," the former ICE acting director said on Newsmax's "America Right Now."

"You can see the example in New Orleans," he added. "The state and locals are helping. The governor is in support of operations in the city."

Similar cooperation should expand in other states, particularly Florida and Texas, where local law enforcement can help locate targets, assist in arrests, and transfer them to immigration authorities for removal proceedings, Vitiello said.

"More of that needs to happen in states like Florida and Texas, where law enforcement officers are helping the immigration authorities make arrests, find people, and turn them over and put them on a path for removal," he said.

Vitiello also noted that stepped-up action from the Justice Department is needed to deter violence and interference against federal officers.

"And then the Justice Department has stepped up in a big way," he said. "And so, more consequences for those who get in the way of these officers doing their job. Assault charges and convictions for people who put their hands on ICE agents and officers. More of that needs to continue as well."

Asked what he would tell ICE agents facing threats and attacks, Vitiello said morale can be difficult to maintain, but he urged officers to keep going and emphasized that leadership support matters.

"Well, it's difficult in these cases. We're just going to encourage them. We're going to pray for them and we're going to make, you know, have them realize that this is an opportunity now," he said.

Vitiello said agents endured "four years of chaos" during the prior administration and now have support from top leadership, including the White House, as they continue enforcement operations.

"And so these agents now know that the leadership of the department, the Oval Office, has got their back," he said. "They need to continue to do what they're doing. This is an opportunity to secure the border and make the homeland safer in a way that's never been available to them before."

Former ICE acting director John Torres, also on Saturday's show, echoed Vitiello's call for consequences for people who attack agents and said enforcement actions are increasingly being carried out amid unrest in some cities.

"One thing I would add to what Ron is saying is that in addition to the fact that they have to continue making arrests, they're having to do it in the face of in many of those cities, violent protests," Torres said.

Torres said prosecutions should go beyond simple disorderly conduct charges, urging the Justice Department to pursue serious cases for assault and obstruction.

"The Justice Department needs to prosecute them for obstruction of justice, for assault," he said. "They need to understand that that is not acceptable and it's against the law."

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