Dem Operatives Caution Party to Stay Focused on Trump DHS Overreach, Avoid ‘Defund-the-Police’ Repeat

Abolish ICE. Defund ICE. Overhaul ICE. Dismantle ICE. Reform ICE.

These are some of the phrases Democratic operatives, lawmakers, and activists are throwing around behind closed doors as they strategize how to effectively channel the wave of voter frustration with the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

Some Democrats have reacted to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by privately suggesting that now is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the party to reclaim the center on immigration policy.

But winning the immigration debate requires tact — something that doesn’t come easily to a Democratic Party that dismissed the surge of illegal crossings at the southern border under Joe Biden’s presidency and has historically been far more comfortable campaigning on issues like health care and abortion rights.

As a result, some Democrats told National Review that now is not the time to push a fractured coalition to unite behind long-term, comprehensive immigration reform. Instead, the party’s pre-midterm election priority must remain fighting against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement overreach.

“I would caution Democrats against the desire to just spill out an entire policy platform” surrounding immigration reform while Republicans enjoy a rare trifecta in Washington, says Pat Dennis, a Democratic opposition researcher and current president of American Bridge 21st Century. “There’ll be plenty of time to discuss our policy platform when we control the House and Senate.”

Most Democrats believe that their candidates’ demands for DHS reform will play well this midterm cycle with independent voters, many of whom applaud Trump’s success in stemming the flow of illegal immigration at the southern border but think the administration’s deportation tactics have gone too far (even if they want deportations to continue broadly speaking). Hence congressional Democrats’ willingness to threaten another federal government shutdown over DHS funding and gin up support for impeaching the agency’s chief, Kristi Noem, over her handling of the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy.

And yet even Democratic operatives who are optimistic that the pendulum of public opinion is swinging toward them on immigration privately concede that they are still haunted by the “defund the police” era from the summer of 2020, when activist groups infuriated by the killing of George Floyd corralled Democrats into adopting anti-law enforcement language that Republicans then exploited to their electoral advantage in 2024. Hence many Democratic strategists’ private worry that a growing number of mainstream Democrats are rallying behind charged, revolutionary phrases like “abolish ICE.”

After all, the nature of pendulums is that they always swing back, meaning Democrats must proceed with their anti-DHS crusade with caution.

“People don’t need to overcomplicate this,” said Dennis, the opposition researcher.

“Every Democrat has their own electorate. They represent different people, and they got elected because they understand the needs and desires and people they represent, right? So, it is not my desire to sit in Washington, D.C., and dictate messaging strategy,” he added. “But I will say that broadly speaking, people in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party want a secure border, and that is not controversial. What they do not want is mass state-sponsored violence against good people.”

Rather than compare immigration enforcement officers to Nazis and celebrate progressive agitators who obstruct federal immigration enforcement operations, some operatives are advising candidates to make common-sense arguments that center around constitutional rights to speech and protest. Others are urging the party to unite behind reforms that they believe will play well with moderate voters who want secure borders but dislike the idea of masked agents conducting roving patrols in unmarked vehicles. (Republicans counter that without masks, progressive agitators will dox agents and their families).

As the debate continues, Democrats would do well to remember that this month’s debate over DHS should not aim to solve the party’s long-running immigration challenges, warns Ashley Etienne, a Democratic communications adviser who previously served in senior advisory roles for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Barack Obama. To win back voters on an issue that’s traditionally hurt her party, she believes Democrats must keep the focus on the immediate task at hand: reining in a “rogue agency” that is violating Americans’ constitutional rights and falling short of its founding mission.

In her view, forcing a longer-term debate on immigration messaging and policymaking would be a “mistake.” Describing her experience working as a communication director for Pelosi during Trump’s first term, Etienne laid out the strategy sequence that would allow Democrats to benefit from the current environment. First, elevate controversial ICE tactics to the national discourse (possibly through this week’s government funding fight). Next, conduct thorough congressional investigations (bonus points if those investigations get bipartisan buy-in). And finally, develop a cohesive messaging framework that Democrats can use heading into the midterms to win.

It’s not hard to imagine this anti-DHS gambit spinning out of control. Frustrations with this month’s fatal shootings in Minneapolis have yet to metastasize into nationwide protests. But if protests turn ugly like they did during the summer of 2020, Democrats will get the blame.

As Etienne sees it, the Democrats must avoid a repeat of the “defund the police” era at all costs. “We still can’t shake that. That was a colossal mistake,” she said. “And you know what the outcome of that was? We never got the George Floyd bill passed.”