For years, Republicans dared Democrats to criticize Immigration and Customs Enforcement, believing the politics of such an attack would backfire. Now, after national furor over a chaotic ICE surge in Minnesota, where federal immigration officers fatally shot two U.S. citizens, reportedly used a 5-year-old boy as “bait” and repeatedly deployed tear gas in residential neighborhoods, the challenge has flipped: ICE has become a political liability not for Democrats, but for Republicans.
Criticizing it has moved from the province of the progressive fringe to the center of the Democratic Party, with congressional Democrats comfortably threatening to block government funding unless the agency is overhauled. Meanwhile, Republicans are scrambling for a way to regain the upper hand.
“This version of ICE is brutal, is lawless, is acting in an inhumane way,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told MS NOW, articulating a position that was once considered politically risky within his party. “And so, when we win the election, yes, we are going to have to essentially strip down the existing domestic enforcement agency and rebuild something humane in its place.”
What has changed is not Democrats’ opposition to ICE — that has been consistent since Trump elevated the agency during his first term; what has changed is the political potency of that opposition, now amplified by growing unease among Republicans and the erosion of support even among Trump’s own voters.
This is a preview of Ebony Davis’s latest article. Read the full article here.
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