AUSTIN, Texas — Abolishing ICE moved one step closer Thursday to becoming the official policy of the Democratic Party, which would give the socialist and far-left wing a major beachhead in its takeover campaign.
At the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in Austin, a policy panel voted to advance a resolution to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The vote followed a heated debate over whether the resolution should include the word “abolish.”
The pro-abolish Democrats won the day.
The resolution, known as resolution 27, passed out of the committee in an overwhelming 25-12 vote after members argued about a proposed amendment to replace the word “abolish” with the word “restructure.”
The amendment was withdrawn.
The skirmish over “abolish ICE” underscores the increasing tension in the party between establishment Democrats and far-left insurgents who have energized much of the base and become a dominant force in the midterm campaigns.
North Carolina DNC member John Verdejo said socialist candidates were beating establishment candidates because some longtime incumbents lost touch with the base.
“Do a better job. Because if you were doing the job that we would like you to do, there’d be no insurgents coming after you,” he told The Washington Times. “All due respect, some of them got fat while the rest of us were starving.”
The resolution recognized “people killed or abused by ICE” and called for accountability at the Department of Homeland Security.
“We do not need an agency who treats all individuals of my skin color and darker like criminals just for existing. Please join me and 76% of Democrats that support abolishing ICE,” said Michelle Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who sponsored the abolish-ICE resolution.
She described the modern immigration force as a monster offspring of its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
“DHS and ICE were created in response to 9/11. Prior to this, there were not children in cages or citizens murdered in the street by INS,” she said.
The opponents of the “abolish” language insisted they wanted to dramatically overhaul ICE and end President Trump’s immigration policies. They just wanted to shy away from rhetoric that backfired on Democrats in the past, such as calls to “abolish the police.”
The DNC has adopted previous resolutions, including at its spring meeting in New Orleans, calling for changes and accountability for ICE.
“We shouldn’t contradict ourselves by also introducing a resolution that would now call to abolish something that we have a well-established track record of calling to be drastically reformed,” Marge Hoffa, vice chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, argued unsuccessfully.
The Republican National Committee said the vote to abolish ICE cemented Democrats’ status as the “open borders party.”
“Their radical pro-criminal agenda puts law enforcement and the public at risk. President Trump secured our border, deported violent criminal aliens and delivered the lowest murder rate in 125 years. If Democrats had any backbone, they’d vote down this dangerous proposal and put American citizens first,” RNC spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said.
The abolish-ICE resolutions are scheduled to go to a vote by the full DNC on Saturday.
Other resolutions that passed out of the committee included opposing the SAVE America Act voter ID legislation, condemning Republican efforts to dismantle minority congressional districts and defending a free, diverse media against far-right consolidation and censorship.
The DNC did not address any resolution on its Middle East policy, which has been a flash point with the socialist wing demanding the party break its longtime support for Israel and back cutting off U.S. aid to the Jewish state.
On Thursday, the DNC opted to quietly press forward with a plan to deliver a formal report to party leadership by this winter about its stand in the Israel-Palestinian conflict and other Middle East issues. It was a low-key acknowledgment that the party remains deeply fractured over Israel.
The Working Group’s existence stems directly from resolutions referred from the committee’s previous meeting, signaling that rank-and-file DNC members have been pushing for formal action on the issue.
