On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a GOP resolution that voiced support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as a response to mounting pressure from activists to abolish the government agency because of its history of infringing on immigrants’ human rights.
The resolution passed overwhelmingly with 244-35, while 133 Democrats voted “present.”
Among those 244 yeas, 18 came from Democrats, with two from Arizona: Rep. Tom O’Halleran and Rep. Krysten Sinema. Reports have suggested that Republicans pushed this resolution through the House to test how Democrats respond to the left’s calls for an end to ICE.
On Wednesday the Arizona Republic reported, “All five of Arizona’s House Republicans voted for the resolution. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, voted against it. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, voted ‘present.'”
At yesterday’s Democratic primary Congressional District 2 forum, hosted by Represent Me AZ, moderator Marion Chubon asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would have joined the Democrats in the House who voted in favor of supporting ICE. Former Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick was the only one who raised her hand, to a chorus of boos.
Kirkpatrick said in an interview after the forum that ICE performs a lot of different functions. She said she supports immigration reform, but ICE should be a part of that reform.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2018.
The boos tell you all you need to know. The Democratic party currently opposes every form of immigration enforcement. The party believes in an open border and unlimited immigration (at least in one direction). If that’s what you support, support the Democratic party.
Um…no. Like the article just said, the vast majority of Democrats did NOT cast even a symbolic vote against ICE, despite its incredibly bloated budget and its huge problems with corruption, inefficiency, and lack of accountability.
Isn’t it amazing that you can put facts right in front of some people’s nose, and they still only see their own nose?
Even the Ds that voted against ICE are not in favor of “open borders”. They just believe that ICE should be broken up again into the separate and distinct agencies that existed before 9/11–one for customs, one for immigration, etc.
The creation of ICE was part and parcel of the post-9/11 Homeland Security hysteria, and it had one purpose–to demonize migrants of color and universally brand them as a collectively dangerous threat to the established (white) order.