Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is running this year to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, isn’t joining Democrats who are pushing to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Abolishing ICE does nothing to resolve any … issues,” O’Rourke said in an interview on ABC News’ “Powerhouse Politics” podcast Wednesday. “It is the practices, it is the way in which we are treating our fellow human beings that needs to be changed, and that won’t come with a slogan or a bumper sticker or the abolition of one department.”
ICE has come under scrutiny recently due to the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy to prosecute all illegal immigrants, which resulted in thousands of children being separated from their accompanying adults after being apprehended at the border.
In response, Trump signed an executive order last month to prevent the splitting up of apprehended immigrant families. The administration is facing a court-ordered deadline on July 26 to reunite families — a task O’Rourke says will not be completed.
“It is clear to me that the administration is not going to make its deadline,” O’Rourke said. “This country was in no way prepared for the industrial scale of family separation.”
[Opinion: The slow death of the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement]
O’Rourke said that addressing family separation can only result from “thoughtful policy that brings people from both parties together.”
“It’s time for the institution of Congress to stand up and do its job,” he said.
Democrats, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have backed abolishing ICE.
Additionally, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., introduced legislation that would dissolve ICE within a year of enactment and would establish a bipartisan group to decide which agencies would manage necessary ICE functions.
O’Rourke is challenging Cruz in the general election and the two will face off in the in the 2018 midterm contest in November.
