The Democratic National Committee on Saturday approved dueling messages on whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished or reformed, reflecting sharp opposition to President Donald Trump's crackdown but revealing disagreement in the party ahead of the midterms. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.
At the summer meeting in Austin, Texas, the DNC also signed off on a raft of policy positions, including one that calls for "concrete reforms" of ICE and another for abolishing the agency that's been at the center of several fatal encounters.
ICE has been at the heart of a progressive rallying cry since 2018 during the first Trump administration, and has been renewed among some in the party after two recent fatal shootings by the agency in July.
Saturday's vote isn't binding and doesn't set the party's platform, which will be determined at the 2028 convention, but it reflects the party's differing views on a major issue. Candidates and lawmakers will continue to determine their own positions on the issue.
Michele Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who proposed the measure to abolish ICE, said it's time for Democrats to take a stand and pointed to the dissolution of ICE's predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as a precedent.
"I think one of the reasons why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic," she said. "We sound focus group tested, we sound poll tested because we're worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position."