Sen. Ben Cardin, D–Md., said Monday the U.S. needs to have an agency at the border, but would not say whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished like many Democratic lawmakers are advocating.
“We have to have an agency at the border,” Cardin told CNN. “I don’t want [ICE agents] being ordered to separate families at the border.”
Democratic @SenatorCardin declines to call for abolishing ICE: “We’re always going to have an agency at the border. It’s the policy set by this administration that’s causing the frustration against ICE” https://t.co/r2ywZOvSUS pic.twitter.com/kGUegH5WVK
— New Day (@NewDay) July 2, 2018
Since President Trump’s zero tolerance policy caused a spike in the number of illegal immigrant parents who were separated from their children after crossing the southern border, many Democratic lawmakers have begun calling for the abolition of ICE.
New York Democratic congressional candidate Cynthia Nixon seemed to start the movement after saying multiple times that ICE should not exist and that the agency is not necessary.
However, Cardin joins a list of other Democrats who agree that the agency is important, but say they don’t agree with how it is being run under the Trump administration.
Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota say the problem is with ICE’s policies, not with the agency’s existence.
However, more progressive leftists such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California joined the wave of lawmakers calling for the abolition of ICE.
