About ICE and this idea that it is helpful to the President for Democrats to call for its abolition, here is one conservative's perspective: /1
I have identified as conservative because I always want to be the person who read the rules inside the top of the box. I want to value the rules and the process even when it leads to an outcome I don't like.
(Side note: the last two years are the worst)
(Side note: the last two years are the worst)
I value law and order, in that order. First, the law. Then the order.
It seems to me that ICE as an organization delivers neither.
It seems to me that ICE as an organization delivers neither.
The detention of folks without due process, the emphasis on weapons and holding facilities, the smugness of ICE's own strategic plan -- it all sounds more like the work of the Justice League than the justice system.
Maybe it makes some people feel safe. Feeling safe and being safe are different things. In the slide toward authoritarianism, ICE seems to be a dangerous force.
If ICE were effective, why would we have a purportedly escalating problem? Why would there be a border crisis? They certainly have not lacked time, power, or money.
I say none of this as criticism of individual agents -- I'm sure there are upstanding people doing their best within the agency made to look like caricatures by others who seem to be so broke that they dehumanize even children who are not American citizens.
But as an organization, I think ICE is redundant of other agencies in capability, reckless in terms of constitutionality, hugely and needlessly expensive, and representative of a massive expansion of the federal government. -b
