By Mike Catalini | Associated Press<\/p>\n
AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Democrats on Saturday approved dueling messages on whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished or reformed, reflecting sharp opposition to President Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown<\/a> but revealing disagreement in the party ahead of the midterms.<\/p>\n The Democratic National Committee, gathered for a summer meeting<\/a>, also signed off on a raft of policy positions, including one that calls for \u201cconcrete reforms\u201d of ICE and another for abolishing the agency that\u2019s been at the center of several fatal encounters<\/a>.<\/p>\n ICE has been at the heart of a progressive rallying cry since 2018 during the first Trump administration, and has been renewed among some in the party after two recent fatal shootings<\/a> by the agency in July.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s vote isn\u2019t binding and doesn\u2019t set the party\u2019s platform, which will be determined at the 2028 convention, but it reflects the party\u2019s differing views on a major issue. Candidates and lawmakers will continue to determine their own positions on the issue.<\/p>\n Michele Johnson, a DNC member from Louisiana who proposed the measure to abolish ICE, said it\u2019s time for Democrats to take a stand and pointed to the dissolution of ICE\u2019s predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, as a precedent.<\/p>\n \u201cI think one of the reasons why people are not trusting the party is because we sound so academic,\u201d she said. \u201cWe sound focus group tested, we sound poll tested because we\u2019re worried about saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing and not just like, just stand on business, like take a position.\u201d<\/p>\n Not every DNC member was convinced, though. Yvonne Reeves-Chong voted against the measure, saying it would only gain support from a part of the party\u2019s base, while drawing \u201cfire\u201d from another group of voters.<\/p>\n \u201cI would strongly suggest we get to the business of winning races so we can make the policies that make a difference,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who\u2019s from Minnesota, where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were fatally shot amid the immigration crackdown earlier this year, said in an interview that the takeaway is that Democrats find the administration\u2019s handling of immigration, including by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, unacceptable.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, the one thing that unites Democrats, regardless of their position on reform versus abolish or whatever other ways to change what\u2019s happening, is people believe that what ICE is doing right now \u2014 and CBP and the federal government \u2014 should stop,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has to be a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n Immigration remained a stronger issue for Trump than the economy or Iran, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released this month<\/a>, even after three people were killed<\/a> in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the span of under a week in July.<\/p>\n Overall, the survey found that only 39% of U.S. adults approve of his performance on immigration, down from 49% at the beginning of his second term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mike Catalini | Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Democrats on Saturday approved dueling messages on whether U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2137,132,134,133,2133,1829,1724,3607,2631,24644,223,287,142705],"class_list":["post-408113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-2026-elections","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-democrats","tag-ice","tag-immigration","tag-latest-headlines","tag-national-news","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-weekend-wire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}