This congressman wants to "abolish ICE". We asked him how it would work.

We say, let's get back to what we mean: attacking people who pose a threat to our country in a different way than we are doing right now. You have to work in communities to get information. ICE has such a bad reputation, and if you are afraid that you will be expelled, no one will talk to them. They are not able to do the things we need to do them.

It seems like you were describing a branding problem almost as much as a policy problem.

Part of your policy is the brand. . If you can not get information by working with some communities because they think you could kick them out, you will not get any information that could help you pursue someone else. One who is really a threat to this country – and we all want to go after that threat. The way it was used by this president has unfortunately rendered them ineffective.

ICE was also extremely controversial under President Obama. Can ICE be reformed without being dismantled?

If ICE on a jacket is now what no longer allows you to get the information you need because people are afraid of what it means, a half, then you have to disassemble this part of what is ice cream. You do not need to dismount all ICE functions because some are necessary.

I checked on this issue a few months ago and there were very few candidates who adopted it in their platform. How did it cross your radar and convince you to work on a bill?

President Trump has been an evolution for many of us insofar as he will go and, I would say, his actions that are damaging the country.

So I think that when it came to ICE, when we were talking to people in CIE detention centers who had children separated from them in another state, we said to a woman that her child would be brought up. For adoption, and another woman, they said we were going to free you, and finally we would release your nine-year-old daughter who is being held in New York – these are inhumane, cruel and anti-American things.

When the president said this weekend that we could get rid of due process – he is already abusing ICE's personal political police functions for his own reasons, and when you add legal procedures, it is not America. It was really the catalyst. We started talking a little more the week after my visit to the border, but it was the absolute moment not to sit down.

Republicans celebrate the rise of the "abolish ICE" movement, which they say shows that Democrats are not committed to stopping illegal immigration or are "open borders". How do you answer?

Obviously, they lie. ICE does not work at the border, period, end of sentence, end of fact, end of truth. They will try to use it to manipulate people who are afraid of people who do not look like them or who are downright racist. What Donald Trump has done since he's been president, is handling this kind of people.

So, let them go ahead and do it, we will expose the facts. But I think that as we saw with the separation of families and children at the border, he tried to manipulate this problem and he completely exploded because the values ​​of the American people are much more moral than those of our president. I am ready to expose these facts and discuss them.

This debate was outclassed Tuesday night when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who focused on the abolition of ICE, defeated Joe Crowley. What do you do with his campaign?

I think we see not only this campaign, but other campaigns, that the base cares about progressive values.

Our argument to leadership now is this: what do people want? When you ask them, "Do you want a bold change or a gradual change?" Even Republicans want a bold change, across all the specters. I think the political class sometimes likes to stay safe because it keeps them in power and, from time to time, something like last night reminds us that we really have to listen to people everywhere. in the country. 19659002] According to the results of Tuesday, do you think that the Democrats who are in Congress for a long time should be nervous about this moment when people adopt new questions like those for which they were not prepared? What would you advise?

Embrace it. "If people lead, eventually leaders will follow," it's a sticker I have on my car. That's right, no?