State and Local Officials Back Abolishing ICE
By Shari Rendall | July 6, 2018
Over the last few weeks, open-borders protesters in the streets of numerous cities have suddenly taken up the cry of abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”). They’ve even proclaimed the “Abolish ICE Movement.” And as they’ve gained prominence, some state and local politicians have rapidly begun to publicly side with their radical agenda.
On June 25, five state legislators in Oregon echoed the crowd “occupying” ICE’s Portland offices in calling for it to be abolished.
On June 29, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) joined in with a tweet, declaring, “ICE is broken, it’s divisive and it should be abolished.” Although he called for creating “something better” in its place, he simultaneously stated that newly-nominated Democratic presumptive Congresswoman “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is someone who absolutely comes from my wing of the Democratic Party.” It’s not clear Ocasio-Cortez actually wants to replace ICE with anything: certainly the “Abolish ICE” protesters aligned with her seem at best unclear on whether there should be an agency to enforce U.S. immigration laws at all, as many have called to “abolish borders.”
On July 2, New York State Assemblyman and Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn) introduced a resolution calling on Congress to abolish ICE, absurdly saying that the agency “has turned into a force used to raid communities, detain hard working people and to separate families.” State Senator Michael Gianaris (D-Queens) further added to the heated rhetoric by describing “ICE [as] a rogue agency under the direction of a rogue president[.]”
And on July 3, Los Angeles City Councilman Gilbert Cedillo (D-District 1) likewise introduced a resolution demanding the abolition of ICE and “the implementation of a humane immigration program” (whatever that means).
Yet this all flies in the face of public opinion, which, according to a June Harvard-Harris poll, overwhelmingly (70 percent) supports stricter enforcement of our immigration laws and by a similar margin (69 percent) opposes abolishing ICE. Even liberal commentators like Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune have said “Abolish ICE” is “a slogan that benefits Trump.”
Chele Farley, currently running against US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York)—who now wants to abolish ICE—aptly described all these calls for its abolition as both “unconscionable” and a “publicity stunt” that puts public safety at risk for the sake of playing politics. She’s exactly right. And at least now more politicians are starting to be honest about their open-borders agenda, so the public can hopefully be aware and reject it.