President Barack Obama’s former Homeland Security secretary said Friday that the recent Democratic movement to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not a “serious policy proposal.”
“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,’” Jeh Johnson said in an op-ed published by the Washington Post.
Although Johnson had previously condemned the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration policy that led to an influx in family separation, he says he is now writing to “oppose calls to abolish ICE.”
Instead of calling for the abolition of a whole agency, Johnson says people should demand a change in policies or leadership. He said calling for the end of ICE, as opposed to simply calling for the end of family separations, would be Vietnam War protesters trying to abolish the whole Defense Department in light of the controversial war.
“[T]he outright abolition of ICE would compromise public safety,” Johnson wrote. “ICE is a law-enforcement agency.”
[Related: Democrats split over whether to abolish ICE]
