Austin Council Member Casar Joins 'Abolish ICE' Movement

AUSTIN, TX – Austin City Council member Greg Casar has joined a growing list of officials calling for the abolition of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

With a joint statement signed by more than 150 state legislators, mayors, city council members, county officials and school board members across the country on Wednesday, Casar made his feelings known on the matter. He joins legions of other critics of the agency particularly in light of a policy by the Trump administration to separate immigrant families – children as young as infants from their mothers and fathers – and housing them in facilities tantamount to large cages as a deterrent against future immigration.

“I’ve joined the call to #AbolishICE because ICE terrorizes communities, rips families apart for no good reason, and fabricates propaganda and lies. ICE has admitted in court to conducting politically motivated operations in Austin," Casar said in a prepared statement. "ICE has lied to us about which of our Austin families they’ve arrested, and their for-profit detention centers are rife with abuse. They have acted as Trump’s deportation force, propaganda machine, and secret police."

Related story: Thousands Attend 'Families Belong Together' Rally In Austin

Yet Casar's critiques of ICE date to before the current "zero tolerance" immigration stance of the Trump administration, he said. Currently, close to 3,000 immigrant children have yet to be reunited with their parents, and the Trump administration missed a federal court-ordered ruling to bring the broken families together.

"ICE has been a disaster for the 15 years that it has existed," Casar said. "By expanding ICE into a multi-billion dollar rogue agency, our federal government has dedicated enormous amounts of new resources to family detention and separation. We can save money, focus on real safety issues, and most importantly keep families together by ending this failed experiment. It’s time to #AbolishICE.”

In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General issued a damning report documenting widespread abuse at ICE facilities, Casar noted. Between 2010 and 2016 alone, the agency received 33,000 reports of alleged abuse in immigration detention, the councilman added.

“ICE spends more time destroying communities than it does keeping communities safe,” the joint statement said in part. “The experiment that is ICE has failed, and must be ended as soon as possible.”

READ THE FULL STATEMENT AND CURRENT LIST OF SIGNERS HERE.

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>>> Photo of protester at recent "Families Belong Together" rally against ICE and the Trump administration's immigration policies at the Texas Capitol by Tony Cantú/Patch staff