Pence Slams Atlanta Mayor For Ending Relationship With ICE

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Vice President Mike Pence speaks to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in Atlanta Thursday, March 21, 2019.

Vice President Mike Pence had strong words for Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms during a stop in Atlanta Thursday. 

Speaking to a crowd of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at an Atlanta-area office, Pence said he had just heard about Bottoms' 2018 decision to move detainees from the city jail and not accept any new ones. 

“It is amazing to think the mayor actually said — in her words — she would not be complicit in an immigration policy that intentionally inflicts misery,” Pence said.

He continued by saying instead that "criminal illegal immigrants and gang members," the flow of drugs like cocaine and fentanyl and human trafficking inflict misery on the country, and ICE agents bring safety and security to Atlanta and beyond.

Bottoms said last year her decision was sparked in part by the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Standing in front of  Gov. Brian Kemp, U.S. Sen. David Perdue and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, Pence also echoed President Donald Trump's belief that there is a crisis on the southern border.

"That crisis on our southern border is driving drugs and crime and human trafficking here in the streets of Atlanta," he told the agents. "You face it and you confront it every day and you face it oftentimes without regard to your personal safety... you enforce our laws and you make the streets of Atlanta, the streets of Georgia, safer, and you have our thanks."

Pence also said that in the last two years the Atlanta ICE office removed more than 14,000 non-citizens from the country.

After the facility tour and remarks, he joined Perdue at a campaign fundraiser in Atlanta.