Trump Already Gave Us the Blueprint for Abolishing ICE

At the same time, Trump’s campaign has further soured the American public on ICE. A recent Economist/YouGov survey found that 46 percent of voters support abolishing ICE, while 43 percent oppose it—the first such poll to find more support for dismantling the agency than keeping it. The same poll found that 80 percent of Democrats would support ICE’s abolition, signaling that the next Democratic president will face significant pressure to do so.

Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have balked at the idea so far. Some have floated better training—the agency is reportedly only giving 47 days of training to new hires, an apparent reference to Trump’s numbering on the list of presidents—or fewer resources. One lawmaker proposed a bill that would require ICE agents to carry a QR code that people could scan and use to identify the agent, which is about as ineffective as it gets.

Fortunately, the blueprint already exists for how the next Democratic president could shut down the agency. As part of his campaign to remake the federal government in his personal image, Trump has asserted vast powers to decide the fate of federal agencies created and funded by Congress. In his first few months as president, for example, he effectively abolished the U.S. Agency for International Development by firing its employees, halting its expenditures, and transferring any surviving programs to the State Department.