'Abolish ICE' creeps back into Democratic messaging

Calls to overhaul and even dissolve immigration agencies are growing among some Democrats after deportations across the country.

There was a time when calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency was considered too risky for a Democrat to campaign on.

But today, images of aggressive immigration arrests in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Charlotte, North Carolina, have led to anti-ICE sentiment creeping back into the party’s messaging.

“Let me be clear: F--- ICE,” Patty Garcia, who is running for Congress in Illinois’ 4th Congressional District, said when she launched her bid. “It’s time to abolish ICE and hold Trump and his entire clan accountable.”

In Maine, Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner — in what’s shaping up to be one of the highest profile races in the nation — vowed to hold ICE agents responsible and “make them take their masks off” if Democrats gained power in the midterms.

“Organizations that are used to kidnap Americans are not organizations that should exist in the future,” Platner said at a town hall last month. “We need to have public hearings … frankly, probably trials down the road. Because the American people deserve to know what the hell is going on right now and how the people doing it can justify it to themselves.”