With the laser-like focus of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, those opposed to nearly all forms of immigration enforcement took to the streets this weekend to protest, well, just about everything under the sun. While many chanted to “Abolish ICE,” others instead wanted to “Abolish profit.” Some called to “End Deportations,” while others tried to tie immigration enforcement to climate change, calling to “Abolish ICE, not ICE Caps.”
Despite its lack of focus and coherent messaging, the Abolish ICE movement is gaining support among mainstream Democrats. Senators Gillibrand and Warner have both joined the chorus, while Cynthia Nixon, who is running for the Governor’s seat of New York, is calling ICE a “terrorist organization.” But does the movement have legs? Hardly
Fully sixty-nine percent of Americans – 78 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of Democrats, and 73 percent of independents – oppose abolishing the agency that spearheads most of the nation’s deportations of dangerous criminal aliens and gangs, according to a recent Harvard-Harris Poll, conducted by Clinton pollster Mark Penn. Only 31 percent of those surveyed supported doing away with the agency.
Clearly, if this is going to be the issue that Democrats run on in November, they have lots of convincing to do.