Dem Rep. Moulton: ‘It’s Clear to Me that ICE Needs to Be Abolished’


Monday on CNN’s “New Central,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) needed to be “abolished.”

Host John Berman said, “On the subject of ICE Congressman, and I should note, you are running for Senate in Massachusetts as well. You have called to abolish ICE. I want to play for you an interview that Jim Messina, who was the campaign manager for Barack Obama in 2016, an interview he did with with Kate Baldwin right here, where Jim Messina, a Democrat, said, be careful of language like that, abolish ICE.”

Messina said, “Listen, people do want accountability for ICE. They want people held to action. They want smart enforcement of our immigration laws. What they don’t want is to get rid of the federal agency that they think is responsible for, for keeping our borders safe.”

Berman asked, “What’s your response to that, Congressman?”

Moulton said, “The problem is that ICE is not keeping our borders safe. They’re making our cities unsafe, especially the blue cities that Donald Trump wants to target. The violence is the point right now with ICE — and I’ve even talked to ICE officers who are ashamed by their organization, ashamed of what their organization has become. The bottom line is that ICE was created by George W. Bush after 9/11. It should be put back in the Department of Justice. It should cease to exist in the Department of Homeland Security. It’s been a disaster. I was on the ground in Minneapolis, I saw it firsthand, and it’s clear to me that ICE needs to be abolished.”

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