Outnumbered Gets Heated Over Calls to Abolish ICE: It’s Not the ‘Majority of Democrats’!
On Outnumbered on Monday, Fox contributor Juan Williams was in the hot seat and arguing the case for Democrats on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which a number of prominent liberal and democrat voices have called to abolish in recent weeks.
There was a lot of crosstalk as the co-hosts and Wiliams discussed whether the push to abolish ICE represented a large or small portion of Democrats, and what it would mean to the country.
“Juan, do you think that’s a winning issue?” asked host Melissa Francis. “Abolish ICE, is it a good idea?”
“That’s the question,” said Williams, pointing out that advocating for that creates “an opening” for people who would say that goes against the idea of enforcing the law. But Williams added that ICE, “instead of becoming something that keeps terrorists and bad guys and drug dealers out, has become like an enforcement force, if you will, that goes and raids homes, raids jobs, makes people uncomfortable in their own land.”
Williams said that has created a “backlash” against ICE and most Democrats merely want to “reform” the agency.
“That’s not what we’re hearing, though, from a number of Democrats,” said co-host Abby Huntsman. “We’re hearing ‘abolish ICE.'” Huntsman asked again if this is a “winning message” for Democrats.
“You got almost 70% of the country who say we should not abolish ICE,” she said.
“You were wrong in saying it’s the majority of Democrats,” said Williams, which is pretty close to an admission it’s not a winning message without actually stating that explicitly.
At that point, the conversation broke into a lot of back-and-forth between Williams and co-host Lisa Boothe over whether ICE under Trump does the same job in the same way as it did under President Obama.
They then argued back and forth about whether Democrats actually want to prosecute crime or illegal crossings or enforce the law on the border at all.
Eventually, Williams said that Democrats are trying to demonstrate that the issue is about “people who are seeking asylum under terrible conditions” as opposed to being about drug dealers and crime as President Trump suggests.
Huntsman said “don’t blame ICE, blame the lawmakers” for policies like child separation which can affect those seeking asylum rather than those bringing drugs or gangs.
Melissa Francis wryly ended the segment saying “I think we’ve solved it.’
Watch the clip above, courtesy of Fox News.
[Featured image via screengrab]
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