...
By Andrew Stanton
Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Support for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached a record high in a new poll released Tuesday.
Newsweek reached out to ICE for comment via email.
Why It Matters
ICE and other federal immigration agencies faced increased scrutiny after two American citizens were fatally shot in January. ICE funding has become a political sticking point, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) remains shut down as lawmakers tangle over agency funding.
Read More on Politics
What To Know
A new poll from YouGov and The Economist found growing support for abolishing ICE. Fifty percent of respondents said they supported the idea while 39 percent disagreed with it. The pollster described the results as a "new high" in a post to X.
Among Democrats, support for abolishing ICE stood at 77 percent, while 52 percent of independents said they back ending ICE. Twenty-three percent of Republicans said they support ICE's demise.
The poll surveyed 1,515 adults from February 27 to March 2 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
It marks an increase from an earlier poll, where 47 percent supported abolishing ICE and 42 percent opposed the measure. That poll surveyed 1,730 adults from February 6 to February 9.
...
Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti Shootings Fueled DHS Scrutiny
On January 7, an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, 37, as she drove away from agents in a Minneapolis neighborhood. Bystander video shows an officer approaching her stopped Honda Pilot SUV, demanding she open the door and grabbing the handle. As the vehicle began moving forward, a different officer standing in front fired his weapon at close range.
The Trump administration characterized Good as a domestic terrorist who attempted to run over an officer. However, state and local officials have rejected that description.
Just weeks later, on January 24, a U.S. Border Patrol officer fatally shot Alex Pretti, also 37.
Some Trump administration officials, like DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, have faced intense criticism for their rhetoric about Pretti. DHS says Pretti "approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun." However, videos verified by various news outlets appear to show Pretti was holding a phone in his right hand, with nothing in his left hand, before he was shot.
Pretti was legally carrying a handgun at the time of his death. Records reflect no serious criminal history, according to authorities and public documents cited by local media.
DHS Shutdown Over ICE Funding: The Latest
DHS still remains shut down over ICE funding. The stoppage began February 13 after lawmakers failed to pass funding for the agency.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both New York Democrats, outlined their party's demands in a letter sent to GOP leadership last month.
Those demands include the following.
- Targeted enforcement
- Prohibiting agents from wearing masks
- Requiring DHS officers to display their agency, unique ID number and last name
- Prohibiting funds being used to conduct operations at sensitive locations including schools and churches
- Stopping racial profiling
- Upholding use of force standards
- Ensuring state and local coordination and oversight
- Requiring buildings holding detained individuals to abide by basic detention centers including immediate access to an attorney
- Body cameras for the use of accountability
- Regulating and standardizing equipment and uniforms during operations
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, has slammed many of those demands as “totally unrealistic” but has said some items have “probably some room to maneuver on there, to negotiate on.”
The shutdown remains ongoing weeks later, with lawmakers showing little signs of reaching a deal to reopen the agency.
What People Are Saying
U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, on X Tuesday: “Trump’s “Operation Metro Surge” was a militarized campaign of fear that treated immigrants as criminals and weaponized the federal government against U.S. citizens. We need independent investigations, real accountability, and to abolish ICE.”
The centrist Democratic group Third Way, in a January memo: “Every call to abolish ICE risks squandering one of the clearest opportunities in years to secure meaningful reform of immigration enforcement—while handing Republicans exactly the fight they want.”
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on X in January: “As tens of thousands across America protest the violence that ICE sows with impunity, federal agents shot and killed another person in Minneapolis today. ICE terrorizes our cities. ICE puts us all in danger. Abolish ICE.”
What Happens Next
Republicans currently control Congress and have supported ICE after the shootings, so it’s unlikely that efforts to abolish the agency will gain much traction in the legislature this year. How Democrats approach the issue if they regain control of Congress in the midterms, and whether more lawmakers embrace calls to dismantle ICE, remains to be seen.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines