Abolishing ICE is a senseless cause
7/5/2018
Protesters display a sign that reads “Abolish ICE” during a rally in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Los Angeles on Monday.
An increasing number of leaders in the Democratic Party have embraced an idea that sounds good to its most left-leaning ranks — abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In other words, stop enforcing the law.
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That the Democratic Party is going down this path — and it is almost becoming a litmus test now — tells you a lot about who the Democratic Party thinks is its base these days.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, does the job it is charged with doing. It does what the country asks of it — by all reports competently.
Calling for the elimination of ICE is ludicrious. But it conveys an approach to illegal immigration that appeals to the most riled-up members of the Democratic Party.
In the long run, it’s also truly bad politics for the Democrats.
Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 because average citizens want national sovereignty and they bought into Mr. Trump’s panaceas: protectionist policies to protect manufacturing and strong borders to protect American citizens.
Building a wall and taking on unfair international trade were perhaps the two most salient issues that sparked the movement of formerly Democratic voters in swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania into Mr. Trump’s winning ranks.
Did the Democratic Party miss that election?
Democrats are trying to capitalize on the moral outrage sparked by President Trump’s policy of taking children away from parents in order to detain those parents and make sure they do not disappear into the U.S. population before they can be deported.
Almost everyone agrees that policy was extreme and inhumane — all the more so because it appears deceptive tactics were used to take children from parents and because the administration had no good procedures in place to ensure that parents and children would be reunited.
It was a heartless and poorly planned exercise aimed at discouraging would-be immigrants from countries south of us from illegal entry.
Democrats, however, are now playing into the President’s hands by providing evidence that they really want open borders.
Unfortunately, it appears that Democrats are more interested in manipulating the emotions of people upset by border and immigration enforcement than they are in passing immigration reform.
Do Democrats really want to run as the candidates who don’t want the law enforced?
As popular as open borders might be in certain already deep blue congressional districts, it’s likely to turn off voters who said very clearly in 2016 they want border security and enforcement of immigration and citizenship laws.
It is still possible, indeed logical, to be for secure borders and more legal immigration. It is still possible, indeed necessary, to reform our broken immigration system without either open borders or orphaning children.