Democrats can’t agree on whether they want to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or reform it. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) approved resolutions calling for both during its summer meeting in Austin, Texas, on Saturday.
Louisiana DNC committeewoman Michele Johnson, who introduced the measure, told committee members that reforming ICE would not go far enough. She cited deaths of ICE detainees, conditions at detention facilities and other incidents in arguing for eliminating the agency.
Idaho’s Terri Pickens offered an amendment to the resolution while it was in committee days earlier that would have changed the word “abolishing” to “completely restructuring” but it was withdrawn.
The Democrats also approved a resolution calling for “concrete reforms” of ICE.
The votes are not binding, but they spotlight the party’s splintered views on ICE. The party’s platform will be determined at the 2028 convention.
RootsAction, a progressive political action advocacy organization, described one resolution as putting the DNC on record that it “urges Democratic members of Congress to craft legislation abolishing ICE and enacting immigration reform that provides pathways to citizenship, protects workers, and ensures dignity for all impacted people.”
The resolution also “urges Democratic members of Congress to pursue civil and criminal accountability for any federal agent, attorney, or official who lied under oath, misrepresented evidence, or gave false testimony regarding DHS conduct, and to remove qualified immunity and other protections shielding DHS and ICE personnel and subcontractors who have injured protesters or journalists, fired into moving vehicles, or caused deaths in custody, whether of detained individuals, U.S. citizens, or immigrants regardless of nationality or documentation status.”
DNC Chairman Ken Martin said, “There has to be a better way” to deal with immigration than what the Trump administration is doing.
“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 [Customs and Border Protection] and the federal government—should stop,” Martin said.
Republicans have criticized Democrats for calling for the end of ICE.
“When Democrats call to ‘abolish ICE,’ they’re calling to defund a federal law enforcement agency responsible for arresting the worst and most dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X in January. “That is a radical position that would make Americans less safe.”