Fmr. DHS Secy. Jeh Johnson Pushes Back on Calls to ‘Abolish ICE,’ Says It’s Just ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’

TUR: “There is a movement to abolish ICE. It's been painted as a racist agency, an agency that is doing more harm than good. It doesn’t have good approval ratings from Progressives with the 'Abolish ICE' movement. You’ve argued that they shouldn't abolish ICE but there should be a change in leadership and there should be a change in the functionality or the direction of ICE. Isn’t that essentially the same thing?”

JOHNSON: “No. Abolishing the Agency is not the same thing as giving them a whole different policy direction.”

TUR: “Isn’t that just — I mean that’s doing everything but changing the name?”

JOHNSON: “I would disagree. There are a lot of people who objected to the Vietnam War in the ‘60s, but very few people said we should abolish the Department of Defense and try to reconfigure it in some other way. ICE is removal operations, but it’s also homeland security and investigates crime having to do with customs and the border, counterfeit currency, child pornography. They do a lot of very, very important things. I just believe that the focus needs to be in a certain direction for the benefit of public safety. Don’t just go after the low-hanging fruit.”