During the agents’ violent attack on a delivery worker Saturday morning in DC, bystanders repeatedly demanded the agents share their badge numbers. One of them—his face fully obscured by a black balaklava—eventually shot back, ā€œDo I have to answer to you?ā€

ā€œYou guys are ruining this country. You know that, right?ā€ one bystander said to the agents at one point during the incident. An agent, ironically clad in a rainbow face mask, replied ā€œLiberals already ruined it.ā€

_

Last week on stage at the Netroots conference in New Orleans, I spoke with Congresswoman Delia Ramirez (D-IL) about ICE: specifically that she believes it should be abolished. It’s a stance that’s considered far left, but after witnessing ICE and other federal agents in DC this week, abolishing ICE should be the baseline Democratic position.

ā€œICE is a terrorist organization,ā€ Ramirez told me. ā€œIt needs to be defunded and needs to be abolished.ā€

  • Pelicanen@sopuli.xyz
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    18 hours ago

    Unfortunately, a large percentage of the voting population seems to support them, which is part of how we got here in the first place. The best argument for a free and open democracy is what happens with any of the alternatives, but people have a tendency to forget, and opportunists are great at using difficult times to garner support.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        A Quinnipiac University poll showed voters disapproved of how ICE was enforcing immigration laws, 57% to 39%. ICE’s numbers on immigration were even slightly worse than Trump’s.

        An NPR-PBS News-Marist College poll last month showed 54% of Americans said ICE had ā€œgone too farā€ in enforcing immigration laws.

        And a CNN poll released last weekend showed Americans opposed Trump’s expanded ICE funding, 53-31%.

        https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/23/politics/ice-unpopularity-trump-analysis