Texas Tribune by Patrick Svitek July 2, 2018
Texas Democrats are finding their place in a quickly growing national debate over the usefulness of Immigration Customs and Enforcement — and whether it should be abolished.
Texas Democrats, including some of their top candidates in November, are beginning to grapple with an issue that is steadily gaining support at the national level: whether to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE, which is the main federal agency in charge of immigration law enforcement, has become an increasing target of some liberal activists who believe it has abused its power under President Donald Trump. The calls to eliminate the agency — or at least ratchet up scrutiny of it — reached a new volume last week after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off a stunning primary upset against U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley, a member of House leadership from New York, running on an abolish-ICE platform.
The win by Ocasio-Cortez, who had visited the Texas-Mexico border in the home stretch of her race, immediately elevated her status nationally and sent the the #AbolishICE hashtag trending on social media, prompting Democrats across the country to weigh in more directly on what until then was a slow-building rallying cry.
"The good thing about Alex winning is it forced Democrats that usually play it safe to come out and really address the problem," said Linsey Fagan, an ally of Ocasio-Cortez who is running against U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville.
In Texas, there is far from a consensus on the issue among Democrats at this early stage. But it is nonetheless receiving fresh attention here against the backdrop of Ocasio-Cortez’s victory, the still-unfolding family separation crisis at the border and the implementation of the “sanctuary cities†ban that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last year.
More:
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/07/02/texas-democrats-abolish-ice/
