The backlash against recent ICE operations in Minneapolis is no longer just a local protest story. It is quickly escalating into a congressional effort that could severely weaken immigration enforcement across the interior of the United States.
Last week, Senate Democrats stripped Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding from a must-pass spending package. Congress is now operating DHS on a two-week extension while lawmakers debate conditions for restoring that funding.
According to reports, Democrats are demanding provisions that would dramatically limit ICE’s enforcement authority — or abolish the agency altogether.
While some Democrats are openly calling for abolishing ICE, others are demanding new warrant requirements that would merely cripple immigration enforcement.
We’ve seen this before.
Kamala Harris – back when she was a Senator – said she didn’t want to abolish ICE; only reform it. Within a few months of the Biden-Harris Administration, however, the Washington Post reported that ICE’s mission had been “essentially abolished.”
Don’t get fooled again.
In practice, these demands mirror policies already used by many sanctuary jurisdictions to refuse to honor ICE detainers, claiming that only “judicial” or “court-ordered” warrants allow jails to hold aliens who are already in custody.
Imagine if every city in America refused ICE detainers on similar grounds.
This outcome was predicted — not by conservatives, but by liberal analyst Ruy Teixeira, who has criticized both the Trump administration’s handling of Minneapolis and the Democratic Party’s response.
Teixeira warned that Democrats could revive their “abolish ICE” rhetoric or attempt to halt deportations altogether unless Republicans agree to “comprehensive” immigration reforms. If that happens, he noted, momentum on immigration would swing sharply again.
That moment may now be here.
The average American may not realize the seriousness of these demands, but cartels, coyotes, and human smugglers will. Word will get around the world quickly that the United States has (once again!) essentially abolished immigration enforcement.
We know what that means: millions of people will put their lives and the lives of their loved ones at risk in hope of making it to the U.S. interior where they stand little chance of being required to leave.
Rather than locking in the border security gains we’ve seen over the past year, handcuffing ICE would invite yet another surge of illegal immigration.
You don’t have to imagine an alternative — just look at Texas.
There have been more than 88,000 ICE arrests in the Lone Star State (10 times Minnesota), and protesters have demonstrated without the chaotic scenes we’ve seen from Minneapolis.
KFOX14/CBS4 (video; news story) Texas should enhance its enforcement with E-Verify.
Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and many other states have directed law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration officials, including crowd control to ensure the safety of both agents and protesters.
Believe it or not, the vast majority of immigration enforcement occurs outside of Minneapolis.
In sanctuary cities, Marc Thiessen notes, “ICE agents have been forced to rely on U.S. Border Patrol to protect them as they carry out enforcement operations — and those officers are not trained in crowd control and de-escalation techniques.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made a point recently to say that Minnesota’s state prison system honors ICE detainers.
The local jail in Minneapolis, however, does not.
The city of Minneapolis bans police from so much as sharing information with ICE, even “for the purpose of locating a person.”
Yet Congress requires ICE to arrest criminal aliens they are released from local, state, or federal criminal custody. When jails refuse to hand criminals over, ICE is obligated to go into communities to find them.
As Andrew R. Arthur explains, sanctuary policies do not make cities safer:
“Most aliens may not be criminals, but criminal aliens are criminals and pose a high risk of reoffending. But if they are deported, they won’t be committing their future crimes here.
“And deporting those criminal aliens before they reoffend means fewer victims — particularly in immigrant communities — while also saving state and local taxpayers the costs of investigating those now-prevented crimes and for prosecuting, detaining, and incarcerating those criminals again.”
Even among sanctuary cities, Minneapolis stands out. As former Vice President Mike Pence observed:
“In other blue cities like Baltimore, New York City, and Chicago, as well as Washington, D.C., local officials have navigated similar law enforcement actions without provoking the violence or chaos now sweeping through Minneapolis. For the safety of their citizens, they expressed their views while prioritizing cooperation and the rule of law. Tragedy did not follow.”
Border Czar Tom Homan spoke to Minnesota officials this week and laid out his plans in a press conference yesterday.
Homan stressed — as NumbersUSA has long argued — that enforcement is safer and more effective when ICE has access to jails and cooperation from local agencies.
He also clarified:
“Prioritization of criminal aliens does not mean we forget about everybody else. That is simply ridiculous.”
Homan praised ICE agents, and acknowledged that some work would be done to regain lost trust in the agency.
“No agency or organization is perfect, and the president and I, along with others in the Administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. That is exactly what I’m doing here.”
Related Resources
Videos
October 31, 2023
Articles
August 23, 2011
Facebook
LinkedIn
Tweet
Email
Print
Factsheets