Rep. Adam Smith Helped Create ICE, Doesn't Support Abolition

SEATTLE, WA - In 2002, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Renton, was one of just two House Democrats from Washington to vote for the Homeland Security Act of 2002, a big piece of legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and thus Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Sixteen years later, ICE is the agency that's carrying out the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policies - raiding workplaces and most involved in separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

There have been calls from the left to abolish ICE - including Smith's challenger in this year's election and New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon - but Smith does not support that idea. And he does not regret his 2002 vote that helped create the agency.

"I think it's a mistake to look at this and say we have to get rid of ICE," Smith said in an interview with Patch Wednesday. "To say the creation of ICE is the problem is to give Donald Trump a pass that he in no way should get."

Smith's point: the U.S. will always have immigration enforcement, whether it's called ICE or not.

In 2002, Washington's House delegation included Democrats Jay Inslee, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott, and Rick Larsen. In that group, only Smith and Dicks voted for the Homeland Security Act. U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray voted for the Senate version of the law.

Looking back, Smith says the Homeland Security Act was, mainly a reorganization of existing departments for the sake of better communication. The law split the duties of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) among three new agencies organized under the Department of Homeland Security. ICE was charged with investigations, enforcement, and detaining undocumented people. The agency was created in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, an event that revealed weaknesses in national security, including the immigration system.

ICE has been very active in Smith's district since Trump was elected and before. Smith's district spans Bellevue to Tacoma, which is where a privately-run immigration detention facility is located. In November, ICE agents were caught on camera roving Seattle's South Park neighborhood trying to gain access to apartment buildings. The DACA dreamer Daniel Ramirez Medina was arrested by ICE in Des Moines. And the Department of Homeland Security's main immigration office is located in Tukwila.

Smith said the best way to handle ICE is to make the agency "more humane." Smith has cosponsored many laws and resolutions (you can see them all here) to reach that goal, but none have passed - and likely would not get Donald Trump's signature.

"I do not support what ICE is doing. I'm not happy about it," Smith said. "You could eliminate ICE, but we'd still be in the same place right now."

Image courtesy U.S. Rep. Adam Smith