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WASHINGTON — The House passed a non-binding resolution on Wednesday backing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and denouncing calls made by some Democratic lawmakers and progressive activists to abolish it.
Lawmakers approved the resolution 244-35, with 133 Democrats voting present, which is akin to declining to vote for or against. Eighteen Democrats voted in favor of the resolution, while 34 Democrats voted against the measure.
The resolution, proposed by Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., expressed support for ICE officers and personnel and argued that U.S. national security interests are dependent on those who carry out the nation’s immigration laws. The resolution had just over 50 co-sponsors ahead of the vote.
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House GOP leaders had originally said they would bring up a Democratic bill proposed by Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., that would abolish the agency in order to put Democrats on the record. But Pocan said that he wouldn’t vote in favor of his own bill if it were put up for a show vote.
The resolution approved Wednesday said that abolishing ICE “would mean open borders because it would eliminate the agency responsible for removing people who enter or remain in our country illegally.”
Calls to abolish ICE, it read, “are an insult to these heroic law enforcement officers who make sacrifices every day to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and protect our safety and security” and that getting rid of the agency would allow “dangerous criminal aliens” to remain in the U.S.
A companion resolution has been introduced by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., in the upper chamber.
Last week, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that Democrats who support the “abolish ICE” movement are taking the “craziest position.”
Ahead of the vote, it was unclear how Democrats planned to vote on the resolution as party members have been divided over the issue for weeks. Several Senate Democrats — including potential 2020 presidential candidates Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — have backed the movement, which ramped up after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose platform included doing away with ICE, defeated incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., in a New York congressional district primary election.
Democratic leaders, however, have stopped short of endorsing the movement and have instead called for reforming the agency.