Capuano denies push to abolish ICE
U.S. Rep. Michael E. Capuano says reports that indicated he wants to dismantle the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency were false — the Somerville Democrat said he is not joining the push by other members of his party, including his primary opponent.
Capuano was cited as one of the pols looking to abolish ICE in a report in The Hill, a Washington, D.C., political news publication, and in a Herald column.
Capuano has tried to walk a line of highlighting his opposition to ICE’s establishment in 2002 while not calling for its abolition now.
“My focus is on reuniting children with their parents and stopping Donald Trump’s hateful policies ripping families apart,” Capuano said in a statement. “I voted against the creation of ICE. However, changing who enforces bad policy now doesn’t fix that bad policy and it won’t bring families back together. The policies being enforced are more important than the agency enforcing them.”
Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, said Capuano’s position on ICE could be a way of appealing to more centrist Democrats.
Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley “is running to the left of him and he’s already very left,” O’Brien said. “If anything, I think it’s a signal to moderate Democrats.”
Yesterday, U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey was the latest Bay State pol looking to break up ICE, slamming the agency at a press conference following a weekend trip to facilities it operates on the U.S.Mexico border.
“We need to dismantle ICE and reconstruct it because it has turned into a massive deportation army,” Markey said, adding that it should focus on human trafficking and other public safety threats.
“We just have to step back and reconstruct this agency so that not any longer, just saying the word ICE throws fear into the hearts of innocent immigrants in Lawrence, in Chelsea, in Boston,” Markey said. “Something has gone terribly wrong with the mission of this agency.”
Markey’s fellow senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, has also called for ICE to be replaced, as has U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Worcester).
Pressley, who is challenging Capuano for his congressional seat in this September’s primary election, has called for defunding ICE and eliminating parts of its operations.