Abolishing ICE Is the Least We Can Do

And it needs to be a red line in our politics once again.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A version of this was originally published at The Nation.

You have probably seen the video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents violently arresting New York City comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander. (And if you haven’t read Rafi’s piece about it, you should.)

The footage is disturbing not just because of the thuggish way Lander is manhandled but also because of the brazenness. Here are federal agents—not local police officers—essentially kidnapping a high-profile elected official in the biggest city in the United States, on camera as he loudly points out that they have no jurisdiction or legal grounds to hold him. The message is clear: If they can do that to him, they can do that to anyone. (Lander was released a few hours later.)

Lander’s arrest was so out of line that even his rivals in the city’s upcoming mayoral primary had to defend him. Among them was prince of darkness Andrew Cuomo, who weighed in thusly:

This is the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump’s ICE out of control—one can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE. Fear of separation, fear of being taken from their schools, fear of being detained without just cause. This is not who we are. This must stop, and it must stop now.

On the surface, Cuomo’s response is just about hitting the required beats. This is bad, it has to end—yes, all true. But there’s one phrase that jumps out: “out of control.”

The implication is that ICE has somehow slipped the bonds of respectability and is rampaging around with no supervision. Nobody’s minding the store! Everything’s chaos! Where are the rule followers!?

But this isn’t what ICE looks like when it’s “out of control.” It’s what ICE looks like when it’s in control—when it’s doing the job that it has been asked to do. That job, more or less, is to be the chief enforcement arm of US fascism.

And that’s why the agency should be torn down—and why abolishing ICE must be part of the platform of any politician who identifies as a progressive or leftist in this country. If you’re watching what’s happening right now and not demanding that this structure of repression be dismantled, you don’t deserve my vote.