U.S. Sen. John Fetterman is rejecting calls from some fellow Democrats to abolish the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement following last week’s deadly shooting of a woman by an ICE agent and continuing unrest in Minneapolis.
“The party must resist the destructive tendencies to push extreme positions,” Fetterman, D-Braddock, wrote on X.
“Secure the border. Deport all the criminals. Stop targeting the hardworking migrants in our nation,” Fetterman added.
Some Democrats have called for abolishing ICE — reviving a push made during the first Trump administration.
U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., said last week that he plans to introduce legislation to abolish the agency.
“The tragic death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, a 37-year-old mother fatally shot by an ICE agent, shows that ICE cannot be reformed and must be abolished,” Thanedar said in a news release.
“When an agency’s structure consistently produces harm instead of justice, there is no way to reform it,” he added.
Micah Lasher, a Democratic state lawmaker from New York who is running for Congress, also wants to see ICE abolished.
“We have a thugocracy in America right now, and ICE is its armed force,” Lasher wrote on X.
But other Democrats, like Fetterman, are opposed to abolishing the agency and say such talk is counterproductive to potentially reforming the agency.
“Clearly ICE is an absolute problem — they’re out of control, moving way too fast,” U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said in The New York Times.
“The last thing we need to do, again, is to make the same mistake when it comes to ‘Defund the Police’ rhetoric. That ended up not actually helping communicate what people wanted. People want a slimmed-down ICE that is truly focused on security,” Gallego added.
