Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) said Wednesday that Democrats should not move to abolish ICE but should instead purge what he called “rogue” agents from the agency’s ranks.
Speaking on CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Gonzalez told host Dana Bash: “We need to reform ICE. I think we need to get rid of a bunch of rogue agents. But there are a lot of good agents that work in ICE that handle our trade, that handle border security, that do a lot of good work in my community, in my district.”
Bash had pressed Gonzalez on where his party stands heading into the next Congress, noting that many Democrats want the agency abolished outright. “You’ve criticized the administration’s immigration enforcement — as you did just now — but you haven’t gone as far as saying abolish ICE. What should your party do about immigration and ICE specifically if you win [the] majority?” she asked.
“Abolish is kind of, like, a pretty strong word,” Gonzalez responded, “but I think we need to reform ICE.”
Gonzalez said he has a good relationship with many agents and credited them for “the hard work they do,” but argued that newer hires are the problem. “It’s disheartening for me, and for many of them that I have a very good relationship with, when they see these new policies that have come out of this administration, with a lot of new agents that haven’t been properly trained and have been directed to really just bring abuse to the streets of the American people, and especially in Latino communities, and people are very upset,” he said.
He added that agents have told him privately they disagree with current policy. “Some of our local law enforcement has to assist ICE because of the governor and some of the agreements that have been made with the administration. But they’re very upset that they’re having to do this,” Gonzalez said.
“Just the fact that you have these unmarked vehicles with masked agents popping up out of nowhere, tackling people with a weed eater in their hand or a lawnmower, pushing a lawnmower and beating them to the pulp is shocking to most Americans, not only Latino Americans, just good, red-blooded Americans.”
Gonzalez said those scenes don’t reflect “the America the world knows and loves, and it’s not who we really are,” and argued voters are responding at the ballot box. “We know, when we see these images, and when we see these policies coming out of the administration, that we need to change course. And I think that is exactly what is happening at the ballot box. And these overwhelming numbers in districts that Democrats should have lost or should be losing are actually reflecting the policies this administration has put forth,” he said.
