National Police Association Endorses ICE Protection Act
The National Police Association has officially endorsed the ICE Protection Act of 2026. The endorsement follows a Department of Homeland Security report indicating a rise in protestors using vehicles as weapons against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. The act aims to provide greater protections for federal immigration officers.
The ICE Protection Act of 2026, introduced by Senator John Cornyn, would significantly increase penalties for assaulting federal law enforcement officers. The bill proposes doubling the maximum prison term from 20 to 40 years for assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon and adds a mandatory minimum sentence of five to ten years for using a vehicle in an assault. This legislative push is a direct response to a Department of Homeland Security report which highlighted a 3,300% increase in vehicular attacks against ICE officers between January 2025 and January 2026 compared to the previous year. The same report noted 68 vehicular attacks against ICE personnel and 114 against Customs and Border Protection officers during that period. The National Police Association has previously advocated for stronger immigration enforcement measures. This includes endorsing the POLICE Act, which would make assaulting a police officer a deportable offense for non-citizens, and supporting the expansion of the 287(g) program that allows local law enforcement to act as federal immigration agents. Civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups have voiced strong opposition to measures that would expand the authority of ICE. Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union argue that collaboration between local police and ICE erodes community trust, leading to underreporting of crimes. They express concern that such legislation could fuel racial profiling and civil rights violations.
