General Discussion

I think Schumer fails to realize that ICE is now so tarnished that it's beyond salvaging. ICE has existed under previous administrations without the over the top heavy-handed enforcement actions and policies. But under Trump it's simply gone too far to be saved. The rot is too deep and there's no pruning this tree. The only thing to do now is uproot it and plant a new tree.

I think he's being careful to avoid the phrase "abolish ICE" because it will play into Trump's narrative that Democrats are soft on immigration and envision no enforcement of immigration law.

Where he's failing on messaging is that it's possible to say what I just said. Tell the American people that ICE is too damaged to fix and a new enforcement arm needs to be created, one that's predicated on the crazy notion that immigrants are people with rights and should be treated with decency and compassion.

Mealymouthed calls for reform don't recognize the reality of how broken ICE is and fail to plant the idea of doing things better via a new agency, ideally one that's not under the DHS umbrella.