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Abdul El-Sayed is putting the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the center of his political platform, arguing that the agency has developed a culture of impunity and operates more like a paramilitary force than a traditional immigration enforcement agency. His position has remained a major part of his political message since his 2018 campaign for governor and has become a major flashpoint in the 2026 Michigan Democratic Senate primary.

El-Sayed argues that abolishing ICE would not mean ending border enforcement or eliminating Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Instead, he has proposed a different immigration enforcement framework, drawing comparisons to the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) while calling for greater investment in immigration courts.

The issue has intensified divisions within the Democratic Party, with progressive and moderate candidates taking sharply different positions on ICE. Critics argue that the agency remains necessary for immigration enforcement, while El-Sayed contends that fundamental structural change is required.

As the Michigan Senate race continues to highlight the ideological battle over immigration, the debate over ICE has become a major test of the Democratic Party's direction, priorities and electoral strategy.

#AbdulElSayed #AbolishICE #ICE #ImmigrationPolicy #MichiganSenate #MichiganPolitics #DemocraticPrimary #Democrats #ProgressivePolitics #USPolitics #ImmigrationDebate #ICEAbolition #ImmigrationReform #BorderSecurity #CBP #HaleyStevens #MichiganElection #DemocraticParty #ProgressivesVsModerates #PoliticalNews #USImmigration #ImmigrationEnforcement #Election2026 #BreakingNews

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00:00eyes what it looked like when our government lay siege to a city in our
00:03own country ice is not about immigration no ice is about normalizing paramilitary
00:08force on our streets and when you connect the dots about what they're
00:12saying about the election and how they're using ice you know look we're
00:16gonna have to be watching those next 52 days so our job is both to show and to
00:22narrate how it is that they're trying to take on free and fair elections in the
00:27first place and then to use this next election to say this is what
00:31protections we need but I also want to talk about the other ways that they're
00:34coming for democracy it's not just your ability to raise your voice it's the
00:38ability of the democracy to represent you in the first place like the idea of the
00:41electoral college let's be clear it benefits here in Michigan we get a lot
00:44of attention because electoral college but it's anti-democratic yeah you think
00:49about gerrymandering and the way that we don't have an objective approach to
00:52making sure that communities get the representation they need because of
00:55packing and cracking the fact that we have not passed comprehensive anti
00:59gerrymandering legislation is itself a problem and then I'll point to the
01:04filibuster in the Senate you know the filibuster's principal use was segregation
01:11it was used most principally to defend against the passing of civil rights and
01:17voting rights and it continues to get used in ways that are anti-democratic and
01:21against the will of the people the Supreme Court right the idea that we've got
01:27these non-elected nine folk who get to you know abuse our system and that we're
01:34not thinking about actually reforming it so it actually fits the moment of the
01:37time that's a problem and then the point that I always talk about is money out of
01:43politics if you spend 70 million dollars lying on somebody and you think that
01:47that's somehow democratic I'm so sorry that we got different ideas what what
01:51democracy supposed to be like and the way that these corporations use the money
01:56system in politics is to make it so that no matter what side wins they win no
02:02matter which side wins if they're taking DTE money DTE wins and we're all out
02:05here being like how come our rates are up so high
02:07hmm how come every time the wind blows we lose power in five days cuz DTE always wins
02:14they always win and they use the system to do it and so we've got to be able to
02:18stand up against that as well so it is passing John Lewis but it's also
02:23understanding all the ways that they've gained our democratic system in our
02:26process to take rights away from us around representation and around making
02:31democracy work I'll finish here often we're asking why don't young people
02:35show up and vote don't they understand that people died for this the hard part
02:40about it is I'm gonna say this all right young people understand the value of
02:45their time they're not gonna be on forever and if they're voting doesn't
02:50feel like it's going to change the outcome
02:56sometimes they're just acting rationally now we could tell them Bob we're gonna
03:00come for all these other things the other thing about being young is that you
03:02don't appreciate how much worse it could get that's right right but I think that
03:06it's important for us to understand that sometimes they're actually behaving
03:11rationally if you know that the big things that touch your life aren't gonna
03:14change based on whether or not you voted you stop voting so we've got to make
03:19sure that elections have consequences in delivering policy that you voted for and
03:24so if your elected officials are gonna show up and not be fighting on the things
03:27in there you know you know how politicians get right they don't say the
03:30usual thing they're not as as willing to keep talking because they're hiding from
03:35their positions I don't hide from my positions and it's partly why when you
03:38look at the vote that we got disproportionately we won because young
03:43people showed up young people decided they're like that guy for whatever it
03:47is I'm gonna agree with him on on most things but not other things he at least
03:50is willing to tell me I know he's not lying to me and that's worth something in
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