The experience of visiting the border, and his consultation with advocates for reform, has led Pocan to conclude that it is time to abolish the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

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From The Nation

He joins a growing movement to disband the agency.

Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan (D-WI) traveled to the southern border last week and witnessed firsthand the humanitarian crisis that was unfolding, as federal authorities carried out President Trump's brutally unjust and irresponsible anti-immigrant policies. He saw what was happening on the ground, at a moment when families were being separated and children were caged. While Trump has since dialed back some (though certainly not all) of his orders, the congressman wants to see a much bigger change in how the government enforces immigration policy.

The experience of visiting the border, and his consultation with advocates for reform, has led Pocan to conclude that it is time to abolish the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

"During my trip to the southern border, it was clear that ICE, and its actions of hunting down and tearing apart families, has wreaked havoc on far too many people," Pocan explained this week. "From conducting raids at garden centers and meatpacking plants, to breaking up families at churches and schools, ICE is tearing apart families and ripping at the moral fabric of our nation. Unfortunately, President Trump and his team of white nationalists, including Stephen Miller, have so misused ICE that the agency can no longer accomplish its goals effectively."

With this in mind, the congressman announced that "I'm introducing legislation that would abolish ICE and crack down on the agency's blanket directive to target and round up individuals and families. The heartless actions of this abused agency do not represent the values of our nation and the U.S. must develop a more humane immigration system, one that treats every person with dignity and respect."

Pocan is not alone in his determination that ICE has to go. Congressmen Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Jim McGovern (D-MA) have endorsed its abolition, as has Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). A number of congressional candidates have done the same, echoing calls from activists.

New York Attorney General candidate Zephyr Teachout has embraced the movement to do away with ICE, declaring this week that:

"We won't rest until every family is reunited and until the policy of indefinite detention is totally abandoned. And as attorney general, I will use my powers to block the federal government's illegal programs, to use the full reach of New York law to get information from the administration about the family separation program, and to protect the rights of separated children and parents.

"But we need to go beyond the current moment and deal with the structural threat. We, as lawyers, must point out that unrestrained power is almost always abusive. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is not an accident that Ice and CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) have become tools of illegality: it is part of the design. Therefore, we must abolish Ice."

The specific work of abolishing the agency is a federal task, and Pocan is ready to get at it. His plans to advance would dismantle ICE and establish a commission charged with the responsibility of recommending a new approach so that the federal government can, according to language released by Pocan's office, "implement a humane immigration enforcement system that upholds the dignity of all individuals, while transferring necessary functions to other agencies."

Copyright 2018 thenation.com -- distributed by Agence Global

Authors Bio:

John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Online Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.


Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times and the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.


Nichols is a frequent guest on radio and television programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. He was featured in Robert Greenwald's documentary, "Outfoxed," and in the documentaries Joan Sekler's "Unprecedented," Matt Kohn's "Call It Democracy" and Robert Pappas' "Orwell Rolls in his Grave." The keynote speaker at the 2004 Congress of the International Federation of Journalists in Athens, Nichols has been a featured presenter at conventions, conferences and public forums on media issues sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Consumers International, the Future of Music Coalition, the AFL-CIO, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Newspaper Guild [CWA] and dozens of other organizations.


Nichols is the author of the upcoming book The Genius of Impeachment (The New Press), as well as a critically-acclaimed analysis of the Florida recount fight of 2000, Jews for Buchanan (The New Press) and a best-selling biography of Vice President Dick Cheney, Dick: The Man Who is President (The New Press), which has recently been published in French and Arabic. He edited Against the Beast: A Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire (Nation Books), of which historian Howard Zinn said: "At exactly the time when we need it most, John Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of writings, speeches, poems, and songs from throughout American history--that reminds us that our revulsion to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in this country."


With Robert W. McChesney, Nichols has co-authored the books, It's the Media, Stupid! (Seven Stories), Our Media, Not Theirs (Seven Stories) and Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy (The New Press). McChesney and Nichols are the co-founders of Free Press, the nation's media-reform network, which organized the 2003 and 2005 National Conferences on Media Reform.


Of Nichols, author Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."