OPINION:
Democrats on Capitol Hill are pushing hard for an overhaul of America’s primary border enforcement agency, ICE, and have banded together to oppose passage of a Department of Homeland Security funding bill unless it includes controls on agents’ conduct.
More than that, they’re bragging about it.
“That is the leverage,” said New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, who heads up the Congressional Black Caucus, News 10 reported.
Defunding ICE is “leverage.”
Yeah, because “defund the police” worked so well for Democrats. Now they’re trying the same tactic with federal border control agents?
Just as a refresher: “Democrats agonize over ‘defund the police’ fallout,” Politico wrote in March of 2021. The story went on to cite a USA Today/Ipsos poll that found “fewer than one in five respondents back efforts to ‘defend the police,’ while 58 percent are against them.” The story also reported how Democrats, “including the influential Rep. Jim Clyburn,” came to the slow realization “the movement hurt Democratic congressional candidates.”
And this: “’Defund the police’ still haunts the Democrats,” Roll Call wrote in April of 2022.
And this: “Democrats grapple with the party’s ‘defund the police’ past,” The Washington Post wrote in July of 2025.
If at first lawlessness fails, try, try again.
“The fight over ICE is heating up,” News 10 reported this week. “Democrats in both chambers are … vowing to oppose legislation funding [DHS] unless it includes tougher rules governing the conduct of ICE officers.”
Those Democrats who oppose the defund plan are finding themselves the subject of their own party’s attacks.
“Fury Grows Over Democrats Who Won’t Back ICE Funding Freeze,” Common Dreams wrote in one January headline. That’s the fact; here’s the fury: “Primary every Democrat who wants to fund and still support ICE. Hypocritical spineless amoral cowards and fascism-enablers,” wrote Mehdi Hasan, who identifies on X as a “British-American journalist,” the “editor-in-chief and CEO” of the “new media company Zeteo News.” He has 1.9 million followers. His ‘defund ICE’ messaging is getting around town.
About 100 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, i.e., socialists and Marxists masquerading as members of the Democrat Party, say they will “oppose all funding” for ICE and border control activities in the DHS funding bill unless agents are stopped from doing their jobs. Actually, they don’t word it that way. They say, like Rep. Ilhan Omar does, the bill must include “meaningful reforms” that bring an end to “militarized policing practices.” But what they mean is clear. What they mean is defund ICE, deactivate the ICE agency, and hamstring all ICE agents so they cannot arrest, detain, apprehend or otherwise delay or halt illegals from staying in the country illegally.
January 30 is the funding deadline.
And now Democrats must decide: Do they want a repeat of the “defund police” movement that opened the doors to more crime, more crime, more in their own backyards? Or do they want law and order and security for U.S. citizens?
In June of 2022, Rep. Clay Higgins posted on his congressional website some shocking and frightening figures from the “defund police” years that went like this: Minneapolis slashed its police budget by $8 million — and suffered violent riots. Los Angeles slashed police budgets by $150 million — and saw a hike in homicides. New York City slashed police funding by $1 billion — and surprise, surprise, experienced surges in shootings and murders.
Contrast that, with this: “Violent Crime Falls in U.S. Cities as ICE Removes Worst of the Worst from American Communities,” DHS posted on its website in July. That’s common sense. But so is the idea that those who dodge regular border control laws to sneak into this country shouldn’t be in this country because they’re in this country unlawfully — illegally — and therefore should be removed.
Democrats don’t get that.
Some Republicans don’t even get that.
But most Americans get that — and support the removal of criminals and lawbreakers from this country. There can be a debate about the level or type of crimes illegals must commit in order to warrant their removal. But there shouldn’t be any debate over the necessity of agents to enforce law and order.
Democrats and their “defund ICE” make as much sense as their “defund police.” But don’t expect them to change narratives until they’re shown politically the errors of their ways. Until Democrats are themselves defunded, they will continue to exploit chaos for personal and party gain.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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