There Must Be Retribution

One of the more popular sayings on the left right now is that abolishing ICE is the minimum. I happen to agree. The last several weeks speak for themselves. ICE as it is currently constructed is a policy disaster and a moral abomination. There is no tepid reform, no amount of training or oversight that could redeem it. The more material issue is: what would it mean to abolish ICE?

Abolishing ICE means different things to different people, but in its simplest form means a reversion to the pre-2003 status quo: ICE’s function would be removed from the purview of the Department of Homeland Security and reconstituted under the Department of Justice in a form akin to its progenitor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Presumably you’d throw in a few reforms: more oversight, more accountability. 

It’s easy to see that this isn’t enough. ICE has a culture of violence and impunity. Its agents have committed countless crimes and systematically violated the Constitution. Additional oversight is not a fix for people who imprison toddlers and murder civilians. 

Abolishing ICE shouldn’t mean shuffling around the acronyms at federal agencies. The rot needs to be cut out. The most obvious and immediate prescription is prosecutions. Charges need to be brought against the agents who killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at a minimum. It’s possible that the charges don’t stick, or that the Trump administration successfully obstructs the proceedings. But a message needs to be sent that ICE agents are not protected from on high, that the administration’s promises of immunity can’t shield them.

There are some lessons to be gleaned from Trump himself here. One of the main pillars of Project 2025 - one that Trump seemed to eagerly embrace - was the gutting of the civil service. Trump laid off federal workers en masse across a host of agencies. Many of them would eventually find themselves reinstated, by court order or otherwise. Many more might find themselves rehired if a Democrat enters office in the future. But that is mostly beside the point. Even if every worker is eventually reinstated, the statement has been made: the civil service is no longer a stable career. If you work for the federal government outside of the military, your job is at risk every time a Republican holds power.  

This is the sort of unease that should be cast over ICE. The goal shouldn’t be simply to undo the agency in 2029, but to undermine it right now. Democratic leadership should make promises about what it will do the next time the party holds power. It should include robust federal inquiries into ICE’s conduct at every level, including both civil rights and criminal investigations. It should include placing every single existing agent on a permanent no-hire list to ensure that the cultural issues do not simply transfer over to whatever entity replaces ICE. 

This isn’t an exhaustive list. But the goal must be demoralization. It needs to be made clear to every ICE agent that, should they remain with ICE, they will soon be unemployed and potentially under investigation.  

Ever since the Supreme Court gifted Trump near-total immunity, he has acted accordingly. He has aimed to overturn constitutional amendments by executive order. He has sent men to be tortured in foreign prisons without due process. He gutted federal agencies without Congressional approval. He shakes down corporations in exchange for favors and special treatment. For all of these crimes, the only consequence he has suffered is declining poll numbers. Not surprising that people have started to believe in the legitimacy of his claim to impunity.

Liberal fecklessness has enabled this state of affairs. As the right has radicalized, the strategy from elected Democrats has largely been to hope and plead for a return to normalcy. That approach has failed. It has left Trump’s allies emboldened, violent and unafraid. 

It’s possible that Trump will never see meaningful consequences, at least in this life. But it should be made clear to everyone in his orbit, from Stephen Miller to the median ICE thug, that he can’t protect them, that they won’t be allowed to scatter back into the shadows when the lights come on. There won’t be body cams and sensitivity trainings; there will be justice and retribution.