“Abolishing ICE” is the Moderate Position

The need for justice in an era of terror

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Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

There has been considerable discourse about the validity of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the last several years. During the first administration of Donald Trump, many people in the political mainstream voiced their concern with the conduct of the department and specifically how brutal they were being with their deportations. Many Democratic politicians and figures in the media became increasingly critical of ICE during this time.

One such noteworthy critic was Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who gained considerable notoriety during this time for rightly pointing out that ICE were essentially running concentration camps, as well as drawing attention to the broader horrific ways in which ICE were treating immigrants during this time. Thanks to the large platform and following that AOC had/has, this drew many people to an increasingly anti-ICE position, and there were considerable calls from some on the left in the US to abolish the institution outright, if not to replace it with something else.

All of this was well-warranted; even the comparison of ICE facilities to concentration camps was something that was absolutely in line with the facts. Let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment and state the obvious that these…