EDITORIAL:Abolish ICE doesn’t fly with voters
September 3, 2018 - 9:00 pm
If the Democrats think that appeasing the radical progressives in their midst by pushing the party to the far left is a winning strategy, they might want to think again.
As Hot Air reports, a new poll published by The Associated Press–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that the far left’s “Abolish ICE” campaign will likely do the party more harm than good come election time.
The push to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramped up in June after the Trump administration, in an attempt to reduce illegal immigration, established a “zero-tolerance” policy that separated immigrant children from their parents. While a federal judge has since ordered families to be reunited, the process has been challenging due to logistical issues — some parents had already been deported — and other problems. As a result, many children remain separated from their parents.
The AP poll indicates the partisan divide on the situation is considerable.
More than 75 percent of Republicans have largely favorable views of Mr. Trump’s handling of the situation, while more than 90 percent of Democrats — and nearly two-thirds of independent voters — disapprove. It’s not surprising, then, that 85 percent of Democrats think the White House should be doing more to reunite the children with their parents, while only 22 percent of Republicans agree.
Despite the Democrats’ disapproval of Mr. Trump’s handling of immigration, however, most stop short of wanting to see ICE dismantled. While 57 percent of Democrats view the agency in a negative light, only a quarter support eliminating the agency entirely.
As Hot Air points out, this chasm could spell trouble for Democrat candidates in future elections.
While her anti-ICE stance helped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeat a 10-term party leader for a safe Democratic New York congressional seat, other candidates haven’t been so lucky. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez supported Brent Welder, who also favors ending ICE, but he lost a primary in Kansas.
Democratic presidential contender Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York supports getting rid of ICE, while Sen. Kamala Harris of California says the agency needs a rethinking instead of a full-on abolition. As the AP also notes, no Democrats running in competitive Senate races in November have openly advocated abolishing ICE.
And if they’re smart, they won’t.
Those within the Democrat Party with socialist tendencies might be loud and dedicated to their causes, but by no means do they have much support outside the regions dominated by the progressive coastal elites. Democrats are currently the minority party, and history indicates they are primed for success in the coming off-year election. But they risk muting their gains if they kowtow to the collectivist radicals in their midst.