NYC Council Considers Joining Push To Abolish ICE

NEW YORK CITY HALL — The movement to abolish the nation's chief immigration enforcement agency has made its way to the New York City Council. Lawmakers are considering a resolution that would formally endorse the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which politicians and advocates say has run amok under President Donald Trump.

The resolution, sponsored by Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), would call on Congress to pass the Establishing a Humane Immigration Enforcement System Act, which would dissolve ICE and create a commission to determine how to fulfill its functions.

"On paper, ICE was created to prevent acts of terrorism. In practice, ICE officers have become the terrorists themselves," Rosenthal said in a statement. "ICE has focused mainly on the detention and removal of individual immigrants — and done so in an abusive and counterproductive manner."

While some Council members have made their ire for ICE known, passing the resolution would lend the voice of the city's overwhelmingly Democratic legislative body to a cause that has gained momentum among progressives.

The Council's seven-member Committee on Immigration is expected to vote next week on the resolution, along with a bill that would bar the city from contracting with agencies that conduct immigration enforcement.

ICE was formed in 2003 under the umbrella of the then-new Department of Homeland Security. Advocates and lawmakers argue it has recently become a deportation force that unjustly targets immigrants who pose no threat to the country.

ICE has greatly ramped up enforcement in its New York City "area of responsibility" under the Trump administration, according to figures from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. Total arrests in the eight months after the 2017 presidential inauguration increased by 67 percent from the same period in the prior year, while the number of people arrested without criminal convictions spiked 225 percent.

The Committee on Immigration held a hearing Thursday on the question of abolishing ICE. The idea drew support from a slew of advocates, some of whom cited the fear and danger the agency has instilled in immigrant communities. Mayor Bill de Blasio joined the push in June, saying "ICE's time has come and gone."

But not all lawmakers are on board. Councilman Mark Gjonaj (D-Bronx) said he'd vote against Rosenthal's resolution, and Councilman Bob Holden of Queens noted that ICE helps get dangerous criminals out the country.

"They are removing people with criminal pasts, wanted in their countries, who certainly present a threat to New York City communities," Holden reportedly said. "I lived through 9/11 ... and one of the problems was city, state and federal agencies weren't communicating."

An ICE spokeswoman said she could not comment on the resolution Thursday afternoon.

(Lead image: Protesters march for the abolition of ICE in Chicago in August 2018. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)