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.\u00a0 While many chanted to \u201cAbolish ICE,\u201d others instead wanted to \u201cAbolish profit.\u201d\u00a0 Some called to \u201cEnd Deportations,\u201d while others tried to tie immigration enforcement to climate change, calling to \u201cAbolish ICE, not ICE Caps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite its lack of focus and coherent messaging, the Abolish ICE movement is gaining support among mainstream Democrats.\u00a0 Senators Gillibrand and Warner have both joined the chorus, while Cynthia Nixon, who is running for the Governor\u2019s seat of New York, is calling ICE a \u201cterrorist organization.\u201d\u00a0 But does the movement have legs?\u00a0 Hardly<\/p>\n
Fully sixty-nine percent of Americans \u2013 78 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of Democrats, and 73 percent of independents \u2013 oppose abolishing the agency that spearheads most of the nation\u2019s deportations of dangerous criminal aliens and gangs, according to a recent Harvard-Harris Poll<\/a>, conducted by Clinton pollster Mark Penn.\u00a0 Only 31 percent of those surveyed supported doing away with the agency.<\/p>\n Clearly, if this is going to be the issue that Democrats run on in November, they have lots of convincing to do.<\/p>\n