Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen has finally broken his silence on where he stands as regards the loud and growing calls from his Democrat colleagues to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); however, his response was thin at best and did little to stop the attacks on him over the issue from Tennessee Republicans, as the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports:
U.S. Senate Democratic hopeful Phil Bredesen says he wants no part of efforts by some national progressives to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency that’s become a flash point for liberals as they rally against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
“No,” the former Tennessee governor said in a one-word statement to the Times Free Press on the question of whether he favored abolishing the agency.
Some U.S. Senate Democrats, including potential 2020 presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand, want Congress to to abolish ICE. Warren said it should be replaced “with something that reflects our morality.”
That Democrats in Red and even Purple states are either ducking the issue as Bredesen had been, or are now giving short answers to what is actually a more complex question comes as no surprise.
Just last month, there were large-scale immigration marches against Trump’s policies in which a number of demonstrators called on the agency to be abolished. And the issue caught fire in a New York Democratic primary contest in late June when challenger Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who pledged to push for ICE’s closure, defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in an upset.
But a number of Democrats in more competitive states are shunning such calls.
But a simple “no” is hardly a definitive answer to a question that could come to the floor of congress with the bulk of the weight of the quickly Leftward shifting democrat Party behind it. The real question, which the GOP is right to ask is, will Bredesen sit idly by as his party abolishes ICE were he elected in the Fall, or will he actually actively oppose them?
Bredesen is still ducking the big question on this issue, certainly as far a Republicans are concerned.
Their statement and some background at links below.
Phil Bredesen has finally broken his silence on ICE and whether he supports his party’s fight against our immigration enforcement agency with a one worded response, “No.” If he doesn’t think ICE should be abolished, he should call for an end to the ridiculous protests – like the one that occurred while ICE agents were breaking up a human trafficking ring. Instead of speaking out against these protests, he is again staying silent and hiding until the press asks him.
How can Tennesseans trust Phil Bredesen when he says he will stand up for what’s best for Tennessee if all he can muster in response to serious issues are one word answers? He is running on a platform that he won’t do the bidding of national Democrats, but if he can’t even stand up to his own party on the campaign trail, why should anyone believe he would actually do it in the Senate?
Below is more detail on Democrats protesting even as ICE agents were breaking up a human trafficking ring. It’s one thing for Bredesen to say he doesn’t agree with the protesters. What he has not said is that he will actively oppose them should his party boss and number one fan, Democrat Chuck Schumer tell him to get in line if he ever gets elected to the Senate.
As the national debate on immigration continues to heat up, video from last year has resurfaced of neighbors protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security agents as they broke into a home on a federal warrant for trafficking of minors.
People in the West Oakland neighborhood of Oakland, Calif. woke up early one morning last year when they heard ICE agents raiding one of the houses and assumed the agents were arresting illegal immigrants for deportation, according to the video from a local CBS News outlet.
The protesters, who crowded around the house, were apparently not given any information by the agents about what was happening.
