“Abolish ICE Now!”
Once the battle cry of a few fringe open border extremists, there is a growing trend in the Democratic Party to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency charged with enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. When he called for the abolishment of the agency, Wisconsin Congressman and Chairman of the House Progressive Caucus Mark Pocan became the fourth Democratic representative to do so. Pocan has introduced a bill that would abolish ICE and then study the agency’s “essential functions,” redirecting the new agency based on those findings. (Yes folks, we need more studies on illegal immigration like we need another hole in the border wall.)
But the notion of disarming the nation’s border enforcement agency is not one relegated to the fringes of the Democratic Party. In Tuesday’s New York primary, Representative Joe Crowley, who had his eye on being the next Democratic speaker of the House, was easily defeated by a 28-year-old former bar waitress, who strongly urged for the abolishment of the agency. And a recent Harvard Harris poll found that 34 percent of Democrats want “open borders.”
Several other Democrats, including presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, have called for “a re-evaluation of ICE,” but haven’t called to torpedo it. Yet.
ICE was created after the terrorist attacks on 9/11 in an effort to consolidate immigration enforcement agencies – which also play a role in national security – under one roof. It is the largest investigative agency in the Department of Homeland Security, and maintains enforcement of the nation’s immigration and customs law. The radical, open borders policy embraced by a growing number of Democrats is not only jeopardizing public safety but national security as well.