ICE Head Slams Dem-Led ‘Political Rhetoric,’ Media Spin Endangering Agents

“Yet we’re being accused of, ‘Oh, you’re going to schools and rounding up children,’” Lyons told the outlet. “All we’re trying to do is locate these poor kids. And that’s the last known address we have.

“Yet you have some media outlets or some elected officials that will put that spin on it, that this great mission that we’re trying to do to locate and find and help these poor children is being torn apart in the news or for political rhetoric,” he added.

Lyons recounted cases of what ICE calls “super-sponsors,” who claimed 30 or 40 children from the government.

“And then you go there, and that address is a 7-Eleven or it just doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. “So then you have to wonder, where do these children go?”

Lyons also denied accusations that his agency is abducting — or, in some of the more extreme rhetoric, “kidnapping” — U.S. citizens.

“That’s not the case. ICE, when we go out and make an arrest, we know exactly who we’re going for. It’s intelligence-driven, target-based,” he told the outlet.

Lyons also rejected claims from local prosecutors in the Chicago area who said that ICE’s presence at courthouses was discouraging witnesses and victims from cooperating in criminal cases, including a murder prosecution.

Prosecutors in Cook County told a federal judge last week that several cases had been affected because witnesses were hesitant to testify or assist in investigations out of fear of being detained by immigration authorities.