by Serena Lathi
What is ICE:
ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Its most well known division is Enforcement and Removal Operations which detains and deports undocumented immigrants. The highest deportations recorded were during Obama’s presidency but during his last term, he signed an order to only prioritize undocumented immigrants who committed serious crimes. This changed whenTrump expanded ICE’s focus to most undocumented immigrants, which basically reversed Obama’s bill. ICE and many sub agencies have access to technology and funding and their annual budget has increased by 85%. (The Nation)
How #AbolishICE started:
Many view the Trump administration’s role in ICE as immoral because deporations for undocumented immigrants without a criminal record is unhumane. They would rather focus on more important problems like investigating drugs and human rights abuses (The Atlantic). Calls to abolish iCE started when Trump started his zero tolerance immigration policy which separated children from their parents at the border Mexican-American border. This movement started as a hashtag and transformed into a small movement. In 2018, Democratic candidates started noticing the inhumane behavior by ICE, and Sean McElwee, a politician, was the first one to use the hashtag on twitter. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a big factor in the movement, used this issue for her platform and won the primary victory. The ‘current movement’ started growing when 2300 migrant children were taken from their parents after they entered the US illegally (The Atlantic). Additionally, Mijente, a national Latinax group, has started launching a campaign around the hashtag. Their approach calls for putting a halt to all deportations, ending all forms of immigrant detention, and stripping the funds given to ICE before abolishing them. (The Nation)
However, like any movement, there are debates about whether we should eliminate the agency all together or reform it.
The Impact of Abolishing ICE:
Many want to separate the criminal justice aspect from the immigration policy and create a new mission that will protect families, not separate them. But supporters are also skeptical because abolishing wont take away the racism and xenophobia enacted from this agency.
The central aim is if ICE does get abolished, immigrants should not be detained somewhere else in the government. We would have to restructure other immigration agencies and functions that are necessary and do not violate human rights would be transferred to them. (The Nation). Those agencies would prioritize removals instead of deporting all undocumented immigrants.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/what-abolish-ice-actually-means/564752/
At a Glance 