MAYOR JOINS 'DE-ICE' CAUSE
Blas vs. border agency after lefty win
Mayor de Blasio is cool on ICE. Hizzoner jumped on the progressive bandwagon Friday and backed a call to shut down Immigration and Customs Enforcement — an idea pushed by congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a sudden superstar on the left after her stunning win in Tuesday’s primary.
The agency has come under sharp criticism for enforcing President Trump’s hard-line stance on immigration.
“ICE has been sent on a very negative divisive mission, and it cannot function the way it is,” the mayor said on WNYC radio. “So I think Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is right. We should abolish ICE. We should create something better.”
It was a new step for de Blasio, who has been fiercely critical of Trump and ICE.
In March 2017, City Hall provided guidance to schools to limit any cooperation with ICE, and de Blasio slammed the agency in January for detaining prominent immigration-rights activist Ravi Ragbir without warning during his regular check-in with officials.
The mayor’s new call to disband ICE comes on the heels of several other prominent Democrats taking up the once-leftwing mantra.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a possible 2020 presidential contender, told CNN Thursday night that officials should “reimagine” ICE with a “very different mission.”
“I don’t think ICE today is working as intended,” Gillibrand said. “I believe that it has become a deportation force, and I think you should separate the criminal justice from the immigration issues.”
Lefty gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon called ICE a “terrorist organization” earlier this month.
Asked if de Blasio’s statement meant the NYPD would stop turning undocumented immigrants over to ICE, City Hall rep Eric Phillips said “no.”
“We’ll need some enforcement agency,” Phillips said. “But it should be much smaller and more focused on those who are an actual danger to our communities.”
During his Friday radio appearance, Hizzoner also grappled with the fallout from Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning defeat of Rep. Joe Crowley, a Queens powerbroker whom he had endorsed.
De Blasio praised both Ocasio-Cortez and the congressman, but wouldn’t say if Crowley should remain the boss of the Queens party.
“He has to make [the decision] himself,” the mayor said.
He added that Ocasio-Cortez’s triumph Tuesday showed the Democratic ParParty the path to futureture success is “bold, clear progressivegressive positions”positio and going “to the grass-rootsro to organize.”
Asked why he backed Crowley instead of OcasOcasio-Ortiz, de Blasiosio cited his seniority.sen
“I saw him defendde New York City’s interest vvery efficiently,” de Blasio said.