WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids this week dodged a question about her support or opposition for a DNC resolution to abolish ICE and a separate resolution to restrict it, harkening to a 2018 flip-flop in which she first said she favored abolishing or defunding the immigration enforcement agency.
The Democratic National Committee adopted both the competing resolutions at its summer meeting in Austin Texas, splitting on details but maintaining the hard-line anti-immigration enforcement stance embraced by most of the party. Davids, the Democrat serving the 3rd District of Kansas who infamously avoids answering press inquiries directly and never attends unscripted public appearances, refused to answer whether she supports or refutes either resolution, saying instead through a spokesman “we need order at the border and a lawful, effective immigration system rooted in accountability, transparency, and respect for people’s rights.”
That response differs broadly, however, from a July 21,2018, Millenial Politics LGBTQ podcast appearance in which the interviewer asked Davids directly, “And just to clarify, you do support abolishing ICE?” Davids responded: “I do, I would, I would” and then added that defunding ICE was “essentially the same thing.”
It took only a month before first her spokesman, then Davids herself, personally disavowed the original comments and said she did not favor abolishing ICE.
Since that time, other Democrats have been far more direct in their disdain for ICE and for local law officers who assist them, even in the face of escalating violence against officers as they attempt to deport millions of illegal immigrants. Some 275 assaults were reported against ICE officers in 2025, up from 19 in 2024; the Department of Homeland Security also reported 66 vehicular attacks against ICE personnel compared to two the previous year. Data for 2026 was not yet available.
Neither violence against law enforcement nor the mission to stop the insurgency of illegal drugs into the United States have dissuaded some of Davids’ Democrat colleagues however, particularly those from solid Blue districts where Democrat Socialists have gained prominence and where Republican voter registrations aren’t as high as in Kansas 03. Some of those comments include:
· Rep. Shri Thanedar, Michigan —introduced H.R. 7123, the “Abolish ICE Act,” on Jan. 15. The bill would abolish ICE 90 days after enactment. Interestingly, Congress.gov currently lists no cosponsors, so Thanedar remains the only sponsor of that particular full-abolition bill.
· Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts — said in January, “There is no reforming this lawless agency … We must abolish ICE.” She has repeated the position several times since.
· Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota — delivered a House-floor speech Feb. 4 explicitly calling to “abolish ICE.”
· Rep. Summer Lee, Pennsylvania — repeatedly has called for abolition; her congressional office said Feb. 3 that she was reiterating her call to “abolish ICE.”
· Rep. Delia Ramirez, Illinois — has been particularly explicit, saying Democrats should build a system in which “we abolish ICE and end detention, and we dismantle DHS.”
· Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York — in May posted a video under the title “We need to Abolish ICE,” saying precisely that.
· Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan — publicly declared in January: “Abolish ICE now.”
· Rep. Robert Garcia, California — said after the January Minneapolis shooting: “ICE must be abolished. Democrats in the Senate cannot fund DHS.”
· Rep. Yassamin Ansari, Arizona — told the House that Congress “must abolish ICE,” while promoting her Drain ICE Act to cut its funding.
· Rep. Robin Kelly, Illinois — has used the slightly different formulation “We need to dismantle ICE.”
Davids’ handlers did not return follow up questions from the Informer on Tuesday.
