Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon Democrat who has served a large swath of the Portland area since mid-1996, writes at Medium that Congress should abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. And he’s not alone!
Blumenauer notes that he voted against the formation of ICE in 2002, when it was part of the massive post-9/11 restructuring of the national security system that bequeathed America with the Department of Homeland Security. But now, he says, things are really bad.
“We should abolish ICE and start over, focusing on our priorities to protect our families and our borders in a humane and thoughtful fashion,” he writes. “Now is the time for immigration reform that ensures people are treated with compassion and respect. Not only because it is the moral thing to do, but it’s better policy and will cost less.”
I have no idea what that means, and he offers nothing in the way of specifics (e.g., better policy how? cost how much less?) I would simply point out that Americans respect legal immigration and blame illegal alien parents for putting their children in harm’s way.
If Blumenauer and other Democrats really wanted to pursue a humane policy at the border, they might think about . . . funding the wall.