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Ron Kind Opposes Democrat-Backed Plan To Abolish ICE

Democratic Congressman Says Immigration Agency Isn't To Blame For White House Immigration Policy

By
Ron Kind
Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Ron Kind said Thursday he’s against a proposal from some of his fellow Democrats to do away with the nation’s immigration enforcement agency.

Kind said it’s a bad idea to dismantle the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE.

One of Kind’s Democratic colleagues in the Wisconsin congressional delegation, Rep. Mark Pocan, introduced a plan to do that this week. Pocan says ICE isn’t serving the purpose it was created for and its duties need to be transferred to other federal departments.

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Speaking to WPR on Thursday, Kind argued the agency itself isn’t the problem.

“ICE is a product of the policy that’s being implemented, so if people have a problem with the job ICE is doing, you’ve got to go to the top, you’ve got to go to the policy makers,” Kind said.

It’s up to Congress to make changes to United States immigration policies, Kind said.

“We have to change the policy and Congress has a responsibility to fix the broken immigration system that we have,” he said.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin also opposes ending the agency. She agrees with Kind that immigration policy changes are the answer.