House GOP relishes ICE abolition vote
Measure could backfire for Dems in November
WASHINGTON — Liberal Democrats unveiled doomed legislation Thursday aimed at abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
The House’s top Republican scoffed that the measure makes him “feel very good” about November. GOP leaders moved toward scheduling a vote on the measure.
“It’s the craziest position I’ve ever seen, and they are just tripping over themselves to move too far to the left,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-wis., told reporters Thursday about Democrats’ bill. “They’re out of the mainstream of America, and that’s one of the reasons why I feel very good about this fall.”
The measure erasing ICE has no chance of going anywhere in the Gop-run House. A Republican aide said No. 3 party leader Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana got a strongly favorable reaction from other top Republicans on Thursday when he suggested holding a vote on the measure. The staffer spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
For liberal Democratic activists, the agency has become a symbol of President Donald Trump’s aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, and abolishing it has morphed into a campaign rallying cry.
While many liberals say ICE has terrified the immigrant community by abusively conducting roundups outside schools and job sites, Republicans say it helps curb crime and illegal drugs. Republicans and some Democrats see abolition as political overreach that will help the GOP paint Democratic candidates as extremists.