Abolish ICE is now the official position of the Democratic party, per a unanimous resolution from the DNC. As it should be.
Useless, meaningless propaganda. I am ashamed for them. All that can happen is a re-organization and a renaming.
Good, I hope all get on board and stick with it.
I think there is a strong consensus in the party that the people who have been running ICE and CBP need to be torn out of gov’t. We’ll certainly have some new version of immigration enforcement. But there’s no way we can let the people who’ve been operating as a violent abduction force and concentration camp guards remain in their roles (or out of prison, hopefully.)
Yeah, the only party platform better than abolishing ICE would be a declaration that the murderous thugs will be held accountable.
ICE as it exists today needs to no longer be what it is today. Yes, the legitimate tasks that are supposed to be in their scope will need an entity to do them, but in order to get rid of the dangerous elements in the “organization known as ICE today” it will have to be dissolved and its functions parted out to others, both new and existing.
Reform, not abolish the SS. We need some kind of Special Branch in postwar Germany, and these are the guys with the relevant skills.
ICE? What skills, specifically, do you appreciate?
So just a new ICE, but with different name and more accountability and reform?
The Democratic party should take a page out of the Republican playbook and make policy based on whatever pisses off conservatives for the next 20 years.
I’m pretty sure that’s sarcasm.
The legitimate functions of ICE should be taken on by other agencies. The allegations of abuse against by agents needs to be investigated and the guilty agents should get life at Gitmo.
All the people responsible for ice and it’s questionable activities need to be investigated and held accountable. Steven Miller needs to rot in a jail cell … maybe they’d like him in El Salvador. All of them should go there.
I agree with the final sentence, but disagree on the first. Yes, the net result is going to be a new organization fulfilling many of the functions of the original, but stripping the current, toxic management and application of the agency is a good idea, though yes, arguably political theater.
IMHO, the rot is too deep - sure, there are probably plenty of people in the bureaucratic center that are just keeping things running, but the top and forward facing elements are already untrained and rotten, completely used to being a political army.
And if (and this is a HUGE if IMHO) Democrats get enough of a majority to make it happen, showing willingness to hold these criminals accountable, even if it’s just losing their jobs is a worthwhile goal.
Abolishing it may also allow congress to claw back some of the money Republicans have thrown to Homeland security and ICE for popular programs. Sure, it’s been designated by congress, but if the department isn’t there anymore… well, that’s been at least a mixed success for Trump.
Still, I don’t think, even with the best outlook on polls that the votes are there. So as a pragmatist, yes, feels like political theater. But showing a willingness to “fight” has long been mentioned as something Democrats should be doing rather than always playing the adult in the room. And this effort would be a step in that direction.
Just as important, they need to make sure that it’s made very clear that they’re not actually proposing to do away with immigration or customs enforcement, just abolishment of the present-day organization that does it, named ICE.
Otherwise, we’ll end up with more of the “Defund the Police” nonsense where they (meaning everyone who repeated that dumb-ass slogan) just handed rhetorical ammunition to the Right.
It doesn’t have to be a reorganization/renaming. They could break it up and farm the functions out to other existing Federal organizations, or just bring it back to the pre-9/11 way of doing things (INS and Customs being separate).
I thought the Democratic Party position was set every four years when the convention adopts a platform. Are such resolutions something new?
The Associated Press take:
Democrats disagree over abolishing or reforming ICE at DNC meeting
Earlier today I think I saw the full text of the two resolutions, but I cannot now find it. Does anyone have a link?
i thought
I think there’s a lane after everything to say. “We do not need an arm of the government that abducts and torments children and grandmothers, and makes all of us less safe.” And using it as an opportunity to protect and offer some path to citizenship to peaceful, law abiding, long term non-citizens. Then basically remaking our immigration enforcement about the border, not about terrorizing neighborhoods. (The border is of course not that big a deal, but it’s one of those things swing voters seem to care about for some reason)
There’s no disagreement – ICE should be abolished, but if it can’t be abolished, it should be reformed.
Yes. The candidates (and bumper stickers) should say “Hold ICE personnel Accountable & make the new Border Enforcement (BE!) unmasked, body cameras and name tags on, and answerable to law.”
Okay, that’s a bit long for a bumper sticker. But every “abolish ICE” remark should also include “new BE: cameras, name-tags, no masks.”
(THAT could fit on the bumper.)
“Make The Bastards Pay” fits on a bumper sticker. I say fuck courtesy anymore. I’m not a campaign strategist, though.