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tristan957today at 6:14 AM1 replyview on HN

Denouncing ICE is not denouncing federal immigration law. The Department of Homeland Security did not exist until 2003. Are you saying that prior to 2003, the US did not enforce federal immigration law?


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sltkrtoday at 6:39 AM

What's your point? Immigration law existed before 2003 too. It might not have been the DHS or ICE enforcing it, but the concept of illegal aliens wasn't invented in 2003.

And yes, I interpret “Abolish ICE” to mean “don't enforce federal immigration law”, because that's what people _usually_ mean when they say “abolish ICE”.

Technically, “abolish ICE” could also mean: “abolish ICE and replace it with an even more ruthless state secret police modeled after the East German Stasi” but in my experience that's _rarely_ what people who say “abolish ICE” mean. So I don't think you can fault me for assuming, in good faith, that's not what Andrew means when he calls for the abolition for ICE, either.

If Andrew feels I'm misconstruing his intent, then he's welcome to write a full blog post explaining his nuanced views on immigration, but he didn't do that. He only wrote two words: abolish. ICE. I think it's reasonable to assume that he means to literally abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, leaving the US without Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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