"But where many Democrats hear "Abolish ICE" as a righteous call to action, others in the party register the clanging of alarm bells. These anxious Democrats believe that such a maximalist demand plays directly into Republicans' hands by making the party seem unserious about immigration. Some of them are pleading with members of their party to avoid adopting the motto. "Unless you truly believe that the United States should not have an agency that enforces immigration and customs laws," reads a memo from the center-left think tank Searchlight Institute, "you should not say you want to abolish ICE.""
"The slogan conjures a not-so-distant time in American politics when even the highest-profile Democrats, under pressure from progressives, embraced a host of deeply unpopular positions, including defunding the police and decriminalizing border crossings. Many members of the party blame this period, at least in part, for the return of Donald Trump-and they're desperate not to relive it. "Oh my God. Déja vú all over again," Lis Smith, a national party strategist, told me when I asked about the slogan. "Sigh," Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president at the center-left think tank Third Way, texted me."
After an ICE officer shot a woman in Minneapolis, several candidates and commentators echoed calls to "Abolish ICE." A growing number of Americans disagree with how the agency carries out its mission. Democrats are divided: some view abolition as a righteous response to abuses, while others fear the maximalist slogan hands political advantage to Republicans by making the party appear unserious on immigration. Center-left think tanks and strategists urge caution, arguing that unless policymakers truly oppose any immigration-enforcement agency, they should avoid using the abolitionist motto that recalls past unpopular positions.
Read at The Atlantic
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