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NASHVILLE – U.S. Senate Democratic hopeful Phil Bredesen says he wants no part of efforts by some national progressives to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency that’s become a flash point for liberals as they rally against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“No,” the former Tennessee governor said in a one-word statement to the Times Free Press on the question of whether he favored abolishing the agency.
Some U.S. Senate Democrats, including potential 2020 presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand, want Congress to to abolish ICE. Warren said it should be replaced “with something that reflects our morality.”
Just last month, there were large-scale immigration marches against Trump’s policies in which a number of demonstrators called on the agency to be abolished. And the issue caught fire in a New York Democratic primary contest in late June when challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who pledged to push for ICE’s closure, defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in an upset.
But a number of Democrats in more competitive states are shunning such calls.