“ICE just endorsed me.”

Donald Trump boasted during the second presidential debate about support he’s received from agents who patrol U.S. borders and enforce immigration laws.

“ICE just endorsed me,” the Republican nominee said Monday at the debate in St. Louis, Mo. “They’ve never endorsed a presidential candidate.”

Did a federal agency endorse Trump?

No.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws and has more than 20,000 employees, according to its website.

But Trump does have the support of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union that represents 5,000 federal immigration officers and law enforcement support staff.

Trump posted a statement about the union’s endorsement on his campaign website Sept. 26.

The first-ever endorsement was voted on by the membership, with Hillary Clinton receiving only 5 percent of the vote, said Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council, in the statement posted on Trump’s website.

“America has been lied to about every aspect of immigration in the United States,” Crane said in the statement. “We can fix our broken immigration system, and we can do it in a way that honors America’s legacy as a land of immigrants, but Donald Trump is the only candidate who is willing to put politics aside so that we can achieve that goal. We hereby endorse Donald J. Trump, and urge all Americans, especially the millions of lawful immigrants living within our country, to support Donald J. Trump, and to protect American jobs, wages and lives.”

The National Border Patrol Council, which represents 16,500 agents, has also backed Trump. But that was based on a vote of just 11 leaders of the group, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Our ruling

Trump said, “ICE just endorsed me.”

He made it sound like a federal agency had taken the remarkable step of formally supporting him. But ICE, which enforces federal immigration laws and employs more than 20,000 people, cannot do that.

He has the support of employee groups, but that’s vastly different than what he said at the debate.

We rate his claim Mostly False.

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