Biden To Leave Democrat Demand To Abolish ICE Largely Untouched
Michael Cantrell
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If Joe Biden officially becomes the president, the radical leftists who were hoping that he would listen to their cries to abolish ICE, will be ready to throw an epic temper tantrum after discovering that the former vice president will largely ignore them.
“Biden is not going to abolish ICE because he’s an institutionalist who will focus on depoliticizing government agencies that became extensions of the Trump administration’s policymaking apparatus,” Cris Ramon, an immigration policy consultant in Washington, wrote in a recent statement.
The idea of terminating ICE has been endorsed by leading Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, New York City’s Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York. The latter two both ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary.
But President-elect Joe Biden’s ideas about ICE are a far cry from what activists and progressive Democrats sought from a Democrat-controlled executive branch, especially considering the involvement of Sen. Bernie Sanders in crafting Biden’s immigration plan.
A senior Senate Democrat aide said the idea of Biden shuttering ICE is not at all expected to happen, adding that official planning documents from his transition team have not yet been released. The aide pointed to Biden’s campaign site, which featured a lengthy document that outlines his immigration policy stances and plans. The list includes just two references to ICE, neither of which stated that he would get rid of the agency.
Rather than abolish them, Biden promised to “ensure that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel abide by professional standards and are held accountable for inhumane treatment.”
“The points made there include a 100-day moratorium on deportations … end for-profit detention centers, reform accountability policies, improve training, increase access to counsel with guarantee for children,” and a big push into an alternative to detention, the Senate Democratic staffer said. He would also reinstate the Obama administration program prioritizing the deportation of criminals. “Much of that will be done administratively since the odds look grim in Congress” for legislation, the staffer told the media.
If you listen closely, you can hear the sad sound of liberals weeping as they cry themselves to sleep at night. They were really hoping that if their guy got the White House, they’d be able to easily use him as a springboard for many of their horrible ideas for future pieces of legislation.
It doesn’t appear that’s going to be the case.
However that’s assuming Trump doesn’t manage to pull off a 2020 victory through recounts and lawsuits that allege massive voter fraud in various key battleground states.
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