Should ICE be abolished? Democrats in 12th District House race chime in

Twelve Democrats are vying in the June 2 primary for their party’s nomination to succeed a retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in the 12th Congressional District.

We asked each of them whether they think U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be reformed or abolished. Here are their answers:

Matt Adams

It should not be abolished. It has an important mission to ensure that the laws of the land are enforced while also treating people humanely and with due process. Congress will have the power of the purse to direct how ICE behaves. And we need to ensure that, above all, we are treating everyone humanely, fairly, with due process, and once we can establish that I think ICE has a role, though much more limited than what it’s doing now. We shouldn’t be separating families, and we should not be wearing masks, and they should not be patrolling our cities. We need to rein them in and require them to only do what is required to preserve our national laws.

Sue Altman

Yes, it should be abolished. I think the Department of Homeland Security is a fairly new operation and I think we can have border security and we can have a humane and welcoming immigration policy. I don’t think we need ICE. I think we need a human and welcoming immigration policy, which modernizes [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services], and ends inhumane deportation practices, and creates the pathway of citizenship, and reforms H1B visas. So I think we need a full comprehensive immigration reform.

Brad Cohen

We absolutely need to have border control, and we absolutely need to have a mechanism to take criminals that are in this country illegally and be able to remove them. I think that what agency or name you want to give to that agency is irrelevant to me. That’s a name, but those functions should be maintained. What I disagree with is the manner in which we’ve carried out those objectives in this country. It’s been un-American. It’s been punitive. It’s making people fearful. It’s denying people constitutional rights, and it’s just mean. That’s the part that I have an issue with. People shouldn’t have to fear going to schools or going to houses of worship or public buildings. They shouldn’t have to fear voting .They shouldn’t have to worry about running around with their passports if they’ve been born in this country but they’re just dark-skinned or don’t look like white America. That’s not who we are. We’re a tapestry of multiple cultures. Immigrants have made the nation what it is. But should those functions exist? Absolutely. What we need to do is reform the system.

Adam Hamawy

It needs to be abolished. It’s irredeemable. It was formed after 9/11 and has been targeting Black and brown communities. It’s not making anybody safe, and now they’re killing and kidnapping people in broad daylight, so it needs to be abolished. We need a system that respects human rights and civil liberties and allows for an orderly systematic process for people to enter this country and bring their talents so that we can continue to grow and build on the legacy of generations of immigrants that have helped make this country what it is. There was life before ICE. We used to have the INS. It wasn’t a perfect system, but it was something. Both parties have really ignored this issue and passed the buck down the line. We have to have a system in place, and we can do that. Other countries have done it. We’ve done it in the past.

Kyle Little

I never was a fan of ICE. You know, it’s only been around since 2003. And it basically is a racist policy to target people of color who, for the most part, want to come to this country to build a better life for themselves. So I feel like it should be abolished. We are not giving people the right to due process, and we are deporting people, sometime holding, keeping these people that we’re keeping them in detention centers, where they’re just given this inhumane treatment. So ICE has to be abolished. It’s no reforming it at this point. We definitely need border protection right? We can’t just have anybody coming into this country, but when people are coming to the country for a better life, for themselves and their families, we need to have programs that help people gain their citizenship.

Adrian Mapp

I believe that ICE can be and should be reformed and that it should not be abolished. ICE was created back in 2003 in the wake of the 9/11 attack, and it grew out of the need to shore up our borders. And so our borders and our customs were combined. We have Immigration and Customs Enforcement. So ICE needs to be reformed. I say that because this president came into office with Project 2025 policies in his pocket. He marched into office with those draconian policies out of Project 2025, and then he put people like Kristi Noem in place to carry out those draconian policies. And I say to you that the problem isn’t ICE. The problem is Donald Trump. If we can get rid of those draconian policies, change the people that were put in place to carry out those policies that have led to the death of American citizens, then I think we would solve this immigration crisis.

Verlina Reynolds-Jackson

It’s outlived its useful life. Those dollars could be used to create a pathway to real citizenship. That’s the goal. That’s what people want. At the state level, I’ve done that. I’ve been fighting for the Immigrant Trust Act. I’ve even gotten the ban on masks and showing your name. I’ve been doing this work at the at the state level, and now I want to do this work at the federal level. There’s a way for us to reappropriate those dollars to create an actual program for us to be able to have a pathway to citizenship. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some people that have committed violent, extreme crimes that should not be here. There should be an immigration department that handles that. But right now they’re ripping families apart, literally ripping them apart, using our own military to terrorize us. That’s where I feel that it’s gone too far.

Shanel Robinson

When you’re kidnapping people off the streets with no type of process, no due process for those who want to see citizenship in this country — it’s not a humane way of doing things … I do believe in abolishing it, but what that replacement vision looks like: independent oversight, funding immigration courts, legal counsel, again, pathway to citizenship. These are people that are already woven into our communities.

Squire Servance

I think the way it’s currently structured is untenable. We’re a nation of laws, but we’re also a nation of values, and we should not be snatching people off the street in face masks. My daughter’s school went into shelter-in-place because around the corner they were snatching parents up after dropping their kids off at elementary school. That shouldn’t be happening. I believe there needs to be a civilian enforcement arm and a criminal enforcement arm, criminal really focused on drug traffickers, violent criminals … I would reform the existing agency.

Sujit Singh

It must be abolished. It cannot go … this way, thugs coming to the door, terrorizing communities, ripping apart the fabric of our democracy rather than providing stability and security to the communities. We must have a modern law enforcement. Basically, we must have modern immigration reforms with a new agency. We should make sure that we have strong border control with smart solutions. We must have a pathway to the citizenship and strong accountability and oversight to the new agency and humane law enforcement. These are the key pillars that should be taken into consideration when we create the new immigration enforcement agency.

Jay Vaingankar

I think that the voters are demanding that we abolish ICE because law enforcement is supposed to keep us safe … and ICE has not kept us safe. I think we can go after violent criminals in our communities through partnerships with local law enforcement, because in this district, every morning, thousands of parents put their child’s birth certificate or passport card in their backpack before school because they fear that an ICE agent could legally stop them for their accent or their appearance. And so I think there’s no reform in this agency. We have to abolish ICE.

Sam Wang

Congress created ICE in 2003, and Congress can abolish ICE. Immigration enforcement should be done by a civilian agency, not by masked paramilitary forces. There’s a general answer I have that encompasses all of your questions, which is: It’s paramount for voters to reestablish Congress as the dominant branch of the federal government, and that’s going to address a lot of these problems. If we can elect leaders to Congress who will pull up their socks and take charge, I think that would really go a long way towards addressing a lot of our problems at the moment.

Interviews were edited for length and clarity, but not to alter meaning or context.

Nikita Biryukov, Dana DiFilippo, and Sophie Nieto-Muñoz contributed.