When it comes to abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the far left is all about it. To them, it’s a bastion of fascism and antithetical to American values—their definition of American values. I don’t know; enforcing the law seems like to be a universal value that should be followed. That’s what ICE does. Yes, they deport illegal aliens, but also bust up drug rings, human trafficking operations, confiscate illegal firearms, etc. it’s your run-of-the-mill law enforcement operation. Those who aren’t to the left of Lenin seem to understand that, but there are some from the Obama administration who know this initiative is total nonsense. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has broken from the far left Democratic herd on this fool’s errand (via WaPo):
The reality is that abolishing ICE is not a serious policy proposal; it’s about as serious as the claim that Mexico’s “gonna pay for the wall.”
Elections have consequences. Those consequences are changes in policy, not typically the creation or elimination of whole agencies. If Americans don’t like ICE’s current enforcement polices, the public should demand a change in those policies, or a change in the leaders who promulgate those policies. During the Vietnam War, millions of Americans demanded an end to the war; no one seriously demanded that we abolish the entire Defense Department. Obviously, that would have completely compromised national security.
To a lesser extent, the outright abolition of ICE would compromise public safety. ICE is a law-enforcement agency. It consists of essentially two components: enforcement and removal operations, or ERO, and homeland security investigations, or HSI, which is dedicated to the investigation of cross-border crimes such as smuggling dangerous drugs and contraband, the theft of intellectual property, child pornography and human trafficking.
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Calls to abolish ICE only serve to sow even greater division in the American public and in its political leadership, damaging any remaining prospect of bipartisan immigration reform. This is one of the things Americans hate about Washington — that politics has become the end, not the means. Most Americans — whether in Laredo, Tex., or Queens, N.Y. — do not embrace the emotional and absolutist views of immigration on the extreme right or on the extreme left. They simply want to secure the country’s borders, to eliminate the inefficiencies in the system and to treat fairly the undocumented people who were brought here as children and have committed no serious crimes.
And that’s the pivot—and en effective one at that. Some liberals embracing the far left position on immigration fail to see how this is a win for the GOP. It shifts the issue away from immigration and towards security, where the GOP trounces Democrats. It will allow Republicans to cut into them on that, while also creating a narrative, which isn’t too far-fetched; that the Left puts illegal aliens before American citizens. They shut down the government over illegals last winter. Also, with regards to ICE and immigration policy, the Trump White House’s agenda falls within the mainstream. Sorry liberals, when you come here illegally and you get caught—you get arrested, processed, and shipped across the border. As for family separations, yes, Americans aren’t for it, but they’re not for catch-and-release either:
The new survey is a Harvard-Harris poll, by former Clinton pollster and strategist Mark Penn. It was conducted June 24-25, with 1,448 registered voters.
On the issue of separations, Penn began with a threshold question: "Do you think that people who make it across our border illegally should be allowed to stay in the country or sent home? Sixty-four percent (83 percent of Republicans, 47 percent of Democrats, and 66 percent of independents) said they should be sent home. Thirty-six percent said they should be allowed to stay.
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The vast majority — 88 percent — opposed separating illegal immigrant families while they are in the U.S., and they blamed the Trump administration for the policy. On the other hand, 55 percent (76 percent of Republicans, 39 percent of Democrats, and 55 percent of independents) said illegal immigrant families should be held in custody "until a judge reviews their case" — essentially the new Trump family detention policy.
The end result was that a substantial majority said illegal border crossers, and the children they brought, should be returned to their home countries. To that end, 80 percent (84 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of Democrats, and 78 percent of independents) favored hiring more immigration judges "to process people in custody faster."
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For example, Penn asked, "Do you think we need stricter or looser enforcement of our immigration laws?" Seventy percent (92 percent of Republicans, 51 percent of Democrats, and 69 percent of independents) said stricter, while 30 percent said looser.
Penn asked whether respondents "support or oppose building a combination of physical and electronic barriers across the U.S.-Mexico border." Sixty percent (92 percent of Republicans, 39 percent of Democrats, and 54 percent of independents) supported the barriers, while 40 percent did not.
Sixty-one percent (73 percent of Republicans, 49 percent of Democrats, and 60 percent of independents) said current border security is inadequate.
Yeah, not the best ground for Democrats who want a quasi-open border agenda.
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