Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Democrats have figured out how to talk about the border. They still haven\u2019t reached a consensus on ICE.<\/p>\n
In battlegrounds across the country, moderate and progressive Democrats alike are calling for a secure border and admitting the Biden administration\u2019s policy there led to political backlash in 2024. But with less than three months until Election Day, they still aren\u2019t on the same page in how far to go in reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement \u2014 with some high-profile candidates pushing reforms, and others calling to dissolve the agency altogether.<\/p>\n
Many in the party see an opening: Half of Americans<\/a> view President Donald Trump\u2019s deportation push as too aggressive. But some Democrats are starting to worry that going too far on ICE could again kneecap their electoral chances in key battlegrounds now and in the future.<\/p>\n “The party is still struggling to get its footing on this issue and talk to voters about this,” said Daniel Delgado, a senior career Department of Homeland Security official who left the department after Trump took office in 2025 and now works as a senior fellow at the center-left Searchlight Institute think tank in Washington. “Trump’s actions are pushing people to adopt a more extreme position, but reform is what’s sticking with voters in the middle.”<\/p>\n Democratic candidates are pulled between a fired-up base that wants to see ICE abolished or dramatically reined in, and an undecided voter bloc that\u2019s much less likely to support drastic measures \u2014 all while continuing to distance themselves from the Biden administration’s border policies that become political kryptonite for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 race.<\/p>\n A new POLITICO Poll \u2014 conducted by Public First between Aug. 8 to 12 \u2014 found that just 21 percent of undecided midterm voters say they support abolishing ICE, while 51 percent of self-described moderate Democrats and 67 percent of progressive Democrats say they do.<\/p>\n Those findings track with other polling this year from Navigator Research<\/a> and NBC News\/SurveyMonkey<\/a> that found Democrats are much more likely than independents to support abolishing ICE, though support for full abolition falls across all groups when respondents are given the option to \u201creform\u201d the agency.<\/p>\n \u201cA Democratic primary electorate represents less than 25 percent of general election voters,\u201d said Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, a former Bernie Sanders campaign veteran now advising Texas state Rep. James Talarico\u2019s Senate campaign and numerous other candidates this cycle. \u201cThe electorate is really pissed, and the Democratic electorate has been very energized, but also these are different electorates from state-to-state.\u201d<\/p>\n Battleground candidates running in border states like Arizona and Texas are calling for ICE officers to be held accountable and guardrails to be installed for the agency \u2014 like Talarico, who wants ICE to focus on violent criminals and be banned from using face coverings. Meanwhile, progressive nominees in key Senate contests in Maine and Michigan say the agency is beyond saving, and have used the potent catchphrase \u201cabolish ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n The intraparty divide was on display in Austin last weekend, where Democratic National Committee members could not reach a consensus on whether ICE should be abolished or reformed, eventually approving dueling resolutions<\/a> that called for both.<\/p>\n That disunity comes as Democrats\u2019 2028 path to the White House will run straight through two early primary states with significant Hispanic populations \u2014 Nevada and border-state New Mexico \u2014 all but guaranteeing that immigration enforcement will be a central point of contention.<\/p>\n Immigration enforcement is an issue where Democrats in 2024 \u201creally missed the opportunity to be who we are: smart, fair, and can deliver aggressively through Congress the things that really make a difference. And we couldn’t say it. We didn’t deal with it,” said New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who has called for more accountability regarding ICE but argues abolishing it is not a winning message. “Shame on us then. We better not make these mistakes again \u2014 now, in ’26, in the midterms, and certainly not in 28.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the party\u2019s battleground Senate nominees, even as they support securing the border, see a path to victory with an abolish-ICE message.<\/p>\n Troy Jackson, Democrats\u2019 nominee in Maine, called to eliminate the agency in response to a federal immigration agent killing a man<\/a> in the state in July and has used the incident to hammer his opponent, GOP Sen. Susan Collins, for voting to further fund ICE.<\/p>\n And Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has called to abolish ICE and likened the agency\u2019s hardline tactics to \u201cnormalizing paramilitary force.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s no question we need a safe, secure southern border. And there’s also no question that we have a responsibility to enforce immigration policy, but to do that in a way that does not supersede the Constitution itself,\u201d El-Sayed said in an interview.<\/p>\n But he also acknowledged \u201cdifferent communities\u201d around the country \u201care going to think differently about these things.\u201d<\/p>\n Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic nominee for Senate, has avoided explicitly calling to abolish ICE, but has tiptoed up to the line: \u201cWe need to rip ICE apart,\u201d she said in her primary-night victory speech. She won a hard-fought primary in Minnesota\u2019s Senate race by castigating her Democratic rival\u2019s votes with Republicans on a pair of immigration-related measures. She opened her general-election clash against Michele Tafoya by accusing the Republican of supporting the Trump administration\u2019s violent tactics in her state<\/a>.<\/p>\n Border-state Democrats sound different.<\/p>\n Moderate Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who currently sits as ranking member on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, frequently tells voters during stump speeches that he will chair the subcommittee should Democrats retake control of the House \u2014 and he\u2019ll use that position to push reforms in the next DHS funding bill, like mandatory use of body cameras, requiring judicial warrants before entering a home or worksite, and reinstalling guidance on avoiding enforcement in sensitive areas like churches<\/a> and hospitals.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me just say this: I don’t believe in abolishing ICE. I don’t believe in defunding the police. There’s a role for them,\u201d he told reporters last month after meeting with Sister Leticia \u201cLetty\u201d Ugboaja<\/a>, a nun detained by ICE while walking to Sunday Mass. \u201cBut they have to have the right safeguards. What ICE is doing right now is not right. It is not correct.\u201d<\/p>\n The South Texas Democrats pay little heed to the loudest voices in the party calling to abolish ICE. \u201cI personally don\u2019t follow what national Democrats are saying on this,\u201d said Abel Prado, the campaign manager for Bobby Pulido, the Democratic nominee in Texas\u2019 15th District.<\/p>\n Some other candidates are altering their message now, too. William Lawrence, the Sunshine Movement co-founder who won the Democratic primary in Michigan\u2019s swingy 7th District, called in January<\/a> to abolish ICE. But he sidestepped when POLITICO asked this week if that was still his position.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t care what our immigration enforcement agency is called,\u201d Lawrence said in a statement. \u201cWhat I care about is immigration policy that adheres to the Constitution and lives up to our country\u2019s highest values.\u201d<\/p>\n Frank Sharry, a longtime Democratic immigration activist, said Democrats would be wise to avoid the phrase.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think that \u2018abolish ICE\u2019 gets you much more than a little bit of play in a primary and a round of applause in the blue bubble,\u201d said Sharry, a senior fellow at Third Way who advised both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris during their 2024 campaigns on immigration policy. \u201cDemocratic candidates who want to win the seats that are going to deliver a majority of the House and the Senate, and then the White House in 2028, would be wise to steer clear of a rally slogan.\u201d<\/p>\n