Acting ICE director defends agency's focus on targeting criminal illegal aliens, details threat to agents

Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons said Sunday that local governments' sanctuary policies and refusals to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement are forcing agents into communities, increasing risks for officers and straining law enforcement operations nationwide.

"You would not see this many ICE agents and special agents on the street [in sanctuary jurisdictions] focused on the criminal illegal-alien mission if they would just turn people over to us. That's the key," Lyons said on "Sunday Morning Futures."

Lyons said 70% of illegal immigrants that ICE arrested last year have criminal convictions, pending criminal charges or criminal histories in their countries of origin, and claimed the agency focused its efforts on people with outstanding deportation orders issued by an immigration judge who have failed to leave the country.

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"These local law enforcement agencies have already deemed these individuals a public safety threat and arrested them. Why not work with federal partners, turn them over to us, and let us get them out of our communities?" he asked.

Lyons criticized local officials for invoking dangerous rhetoric about ICE. 

He said many of the federal agents deployed to Minneapolis, where tensions have been heightened following the death of Renee Good, are there to protect the personnel who are trying to make arrests, claiming that team sizes have increased significantly as they are forced to deploy additional personnel. 

"In my 30 years of law enforcement, I never thought we would have to send law enforcement to protect law enforcement. But I don't think you'd see as many of the issues if political leaders would allow their local and state law enforcement to work with us," he said.

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He criticized elected officials for automatically assuming ICE is doing something wrong and disputed the idea that the agency would target U.S. citizens.

"And now... you're seeing attacks on ICE officers and our other federal partners for only going out there and doing their law enforcement mission," he said.

In response to persistent clashes between civilians and ICE officers, particularly in Minnesota, President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy U.S. military forces to the state if officials do not start cracking down on anti-ICE agitators.

A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital that 1,500 troops have been readied for mobilization. The U.S. Army's 11th Airborne Division, which is based in Alaska and specializes in cold-weather and mountain warfare, has been ordered to prepare for deployment, the official said.

Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.