How to Abolish ICE

We need to abolish ICE. Here’s how we could actually do it.

Activists Demonstrate Against Trump Administration's Zero Tolerance Policy With Separation Of Immigrant Families

Protesters hold signs as they block Sansome Street during a demonstration outside of the San Francisco ICE office on June 19, 2018 in San Francisco, California.Justin Sullivan / Getty


Thanks to the nomination of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it will become nearly impossible for Democrats to avoid taking a position on abolishing ICE. As the demand to abolish ICE grows louder however, we need to ask ourselves: how would we actually do it?

The demand to abolish ICE has filled a void left by the Democrats, who thus far have failed to turn momentum from resistance to Trump’s immigration policies into a substantive agenda. While many Democrats have joined protests organized by grassroots immigrant rights groups and styled themselves as leaders of a resistance movement, they have still not articulated what a left-wing immigration policy looks like.

In this moment, abolish ICE is the only demand that can be called anything like an alternative vision. Here’s how we can do it.

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