Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., stopped short Tuesday of joining Democratic calls to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the issue gained traction with his progressive base.
As President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy at the border and the resulting family separations have continued to dominate airwaves, more and more Democrats have called for oversight of ICE, an agency under the Homeland Security Department. Though parts of the Democratic base have pushed for dissolving ICE for some time, the rallying cry recently reached Washington.
Sanders refused to outright call for the eradication of ICE. Instead, the progressive favorite from the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries backed a restructuring of the entity.
In 2002 I voted against the creation of DHS and the establishment of ICE. That was the right vote. Now, it is time to do what Americans overwhelmingly want: abolish the cruel, dysfunctional immigration system we have today and pass comprehensive immigration reform.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) July 3, 2018
“That will mean restructuring the agencies that enforce our immigration laws, including ICE,” Sanders tweeted. “We must not be about tearing small children away from their families. We must not be about deporting DREAMers, young people who have lived in this country virtually their entire lives.”
Sanders’ tweet comes after he said Trump should work with Congress on a “rational program” that deals with immigration in a Sunday interview with CNN. Sanders’ position is striking as other 2020 hopefuls have latched onto the base’s rallying cry.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., became the first of the likely cast of 2020 Democratic contenders to call for an end to ICE.
“I don’t think ICE today is working as intended. … I believe that it has become a deportation force, and I think you should separate the criminal justice from the immigration issues,” Gillibrand said on CNN last week. “I think you should reimagine ICE under a new agency with a very different mission and take those two missions out.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., followed suit.
“The president’s deeply immoral actions have made it obvious we need to rebuild our immigration system from top to bottom starting by replacing ICE with something that reflects our morality and that works,” Warren said on Saturday.
The clamor among Democratic voters received a boost last week when Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., lost to progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a stunning upset. The 28-year-old Latina distinguished herself from Crowley throughout the campaign on a number of issues, including her support of abolishing ICE. Ocasio-Cortez touted her platform on national media in days following her victory.
