DNC votes to back elimination of ICE amid party divide over immigration enforcement

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved two nonbinding resolutions Aug. 15, with one urging congressional Democrats to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the other calling for reforms to the agency, according to multiple reports. 

The competing resolutions, approved during the DNC’s summer meeting in Austin, Texas, highlighted intraparty tensions between the Democratic Party’s establishment and progressive wings ahead of the midterms.

According to Newsweek, the abolition measure, known as Resolution 27, cleared the DNC’s Resolutions Committee in a 25-12 vote Aug. 13. The full DNC subsequently approved both the abolition and reform resolutions by voice vote as part of its consideration of several nonbinding policy measures, according to the Washington Times and AP News. 

DNC Chair Ken Martin emphasized in a statement to Newsweek that the party will establish its official platform at the 2028 national convention. He added that Democrats are united in opposing the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. 

“Clearly, the one thing that unites Democrats, regardless of their position on reform versus abolish or whatever other ways to change what's happening, is people believe that what ICE is doing right now and CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] and the federal government should stop,” Martin told the outlet. “There has to be a better way.”

According to Newsweek, the abolition measure urges Democrats in Congress to introduce legislation to eliminate ICE and overhaul the immigration system by creating pathways to citizenship. It also calls for winding down the immigration detention system, ending contracts with private detention companies, and withholding Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding unless the department stops certain enforcement operations, including workplace raids, courthouse arrests, and actions near schools and houses of worship, the outlet reported.

Michele Johnson, the Louisiana DNC member who introduced the resolution, said Democrats should take a clear position rather than allow concerns about political messaging to determine their approach. 

“I think one of the reasons why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic,” Johnson told AP News. “We sound focus group tested, we sound poll tested because we’re worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position.”

Johnson pointed to the 2003 dissolution of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, whose responsibilities the federal government divided among newly created DHS agencies, as evidence that it can eliminate a federal immigration agency, AP News reported.

Other DNC members, however, warned that supporting the abolition measure could hurt Democratic candidates.

DNC member Yvonne Reeves-Chong, who voted against the resolution, told AP News that it would appeal to one portion of the Democratic base but draw “fire” from other voters. She added that she would “strongly suggest we get to the business of winning races so we can make the policies that make a difference.”

The division has also extended to Democrats in Congress. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., declined during an Aug. 16 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to endorse eliminating ICE, instead calling for “dramatic, bold, and transformational reform” of the agency.

Jeffries pointed to proposals that he and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., outlined in February after federal immigration agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. The proposals included requiring federal immigration agents to wear body cameras, restricting their use of masks, and requiring judicial warrants before they could enter private property.

The White House sharply criticized the DNC’s abolition resolution, arguing that ICE officers remove violent criminals and gang members from American communities. 

“Instead of trying to abolish ICE, Democrats should be thanking ICE law enforcement officers for putting their lives on the line to arrest and remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members from American communities,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis told Newsweek. 

“Many of these criminals were released from jails by Democrat radical politicians,” Bis added. “President Trump's efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens from American communities is already delivering results including the lowest murder rate in 125 years.”

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