Time for pols to freeze criticism of immigration agency
Time for a timeout in the abolish ICE movement.
The arrest of a Cambridge man for trying to recruit a hit man to kill Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for $500 is a stunning warning sign that the debate over ICE has gotten out of control — and dangerous.
Every politician like U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren needs to think carefully about what they are saying when they demonize the controversial agency, and what their words might be provoking.
The Cambridge man accused in the murder-for-hire pitch, Brandon Ziobrowski, allegedly tweeted his offer to pay someone to kill ICE agents on July 2, just three days after Warren’s highly public speech calling for the abolishment of the federal agency.
“President Trump seems to think that the only way to have immigration rules is to rip parents from their family, is to treat rape victims and refugees like terrorists and to put children in cages,” Warren said on June 30. “This is ugly and this is wrong and this is not the way to run our country.”
There’s no evidence to suggest that Ziobrowski was motivated by the words of Warren and other Democrats, but it’s safe to say that he was supportive of the abolish ICE movement.
And you can bet that if an avowed Trump supporter had gone on Twitter and threatened violence, the president would get the blame.
Ziobrowski’s plot comes in the wake of the murders of four law enforcement officers in the area, and federal officials say there is an “upward” trend in threats to police and ICE agents.
State Rep. Geoff Diehl, who is running to try and take Warren’s U.S. Senate seat, went as far as to say that Warren’s statements on ICE and her recent claim that the U.S. criminal justice system is racist “encourages” threats like the one Ziobrowski allegedly made.
“We now have a man putting a bounty on the heads of ICE agents,” Diehl said in a statement. “Senator Warren’s irresponsible statements are partially to blame. She has a responsibility to support our law enforcement officials. Her call to abolish ICE and painting the entire criminal justice system racists are reckless and dangerous. She needs to both retract and apologize immediately.”
It’s not just Warren who has been on the rampage against ICE.
Warren’s Senate colleague, Edward Markey, called the agency a “deportation army that is experiencing the worst kind of mission creep under the Trump administration.” Markey actually voted against the creation of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
In the House, U.S. Rep. James McGovern has said we have to “get rid of ICE.”
Other Massachusetts delegation members have been highly critical of ICE, calling for its reform.
In her race against U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley has been among the most early and vocal opponents of the agency, calling for the immediate defunding of ICE’s immigration enforcement functions.
In a statement, Pressley blasted ICE for “creating an atmosphere of toxic fear and mistrust in immigrant communities.”
Pressley and others like her are the ones contributing to a toxic political atmosphere.