Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois Democrat, broke Sunday with other Democrats and progressives calling for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that any replacement would still reflect the priorities of President Trump.
As an executive agency, she said ICE “reflects the policies of the White House, of the president.”
“You abolish ICE now, you still have the same president with the same failed policies,” Ms. Duckworth told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Whatever you replace it with is still going to reflect what the president wants to do.”
She indicated that Democrats would be better served focusing on Mr. Trump, who signed a June 20 executive order ending family separations at the border.
“I think there’s a lot of other things we can do before we get to that point, first of which is you’ve got someone in the White House who has these horrendous policies which he still hasn’t fixed,” said Ms. Duckworth. “Families are still separated, children are still in cages, nursing babies are still separated from their moms.”
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth on whether she believes ICE should be abolished: “I think there’s a lot of other things we can do, before we get to that point” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/uct9BoMqVP https://t.co/dL2Stoj3Q1
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) July 1, 2018
Several top Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, have shown support for reconfiguring or replacing the agency as “abolish ICE” becomes a rallying cry on the left.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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