The victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, certainly was a defeat for the leadership of the Democratic Party in New York and Washington. It also is the logical consequence of a party that has “normalized” a radical agenda seeking to close the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and open the borders to all.
For years, it was enough for Rep. Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, to support amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants or decrying the Trump administration for its “despicable policy of unreasonably detaining asylum seekers and families fleeing violence,” as he did recently.
But that day has passed.
“Democrats have come to defer to organized immigration activists in a way they didn’t 10 years ago, or even during the early years of the Obama administration,” wrote Dara Lind in Vox last October.
That has led to a voting base that demand a fealty pledge fealty to the “abolish ICE” movement and a defense of all protests designed to obstruct immigration enforcement authorities, provide lawbreakers with the same benefits as legal citizens and end any serious effort to secure the borders.
Those “organized” activists to which Lind referred include members of a resurgent “Occupy” movement, the leftist fringe group that gained prominence in 2011 protesting Wall Street “greed” and wealth inequality.
They began by protesting outside and forcing the suspension of normal business at ICE headquarters in Portland, Oregon. That led to another group, the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council, calling for similar action.
When the protests in New York City resulted in the suspension of business, including bond hearings for illegal aliens, Kim Kelly, a member of MACC and Occupy ICE, proclaimed “direct action gets the goods” in a celebratory tweet.
Symptomatic of the lack of forethought of anti-enforcement loyalists, the protestors never considered her “direct action” meant no bond hearings – and another day in detention for those with immigration court hearings.
Even that was ICE’s fault.
Protestor Marisa Holmes told AM New York she thought it was “just terrible that ICE is using people that way and creating more harm.”
Actually, more harm is being created in Congress. In the last week, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) introduced legislation to abolish ICE, while Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) recently requested United Nations observers be sent to “investigate family separations” along the border.
The calls expose the utter blindness of the open borders caucus to the fundamentally important role ICE plays in the nation’s security. The agency enforces more than 400 federal statutes, works to combat illegal trade and human trafficking and works to prevent terrorists from crossing our borders.
With polls showing Americans favor strong immigration enforcement, abolishing ICE is a dangerous political path to follow – and one which poses great risk for the entire nation.