In the first full week of October, ICE agents arrested 131 alleged gang members, including 22 tied to MS-13 and 13 to Tren de Aragua, according to the Department of Homeland Security. One was a suspected Tren de Aragua hitman whom Border Patrol caught in October 2023 and then released. The day before those numbers went public, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the Democratic Senate nominee, told a debate audience that “ICE should absolutely be ripped apart.”
Voters should take her at her word. “Abolish ICE” has graduated from a 2018 protest chant to a 2026 Democratic Senate platform. Paired with amnesty, it would leave the most dangerous people in the country on the street and reward the very failures that let them in.
I spent eight years in private security, some of it as a bodyguard. Rule one in that business: You don’t fire the guy watching the door because a few guests complained about the line. Today’s Democratic candidates want to fire the doorman and hand out keys.
Flanagan has company. Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, the party’s Senate nominee there, said, “I want to abolish ICE because this agency cannot be reformed.” Michigan nominee Abdul el Sayed cut an ad calling himself “the only Senate candidate for abolishing ICE.” Even Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants the agency “torn down to the studs and rebuilt.” The second half of the plan is just as clear. Flanagan wants “a pathway to citizenship for folks” already here. Scrap the agency that handles removals, add a path to citizenship, and the message to the next illegal border crosser writes itself.
So look at what ICE did that week. DHS says Gustavo Adolfo Flores-Ramirez, an alleged MS-13 member, is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide and the rape of a minor. He was deported in 2021 and came right back. Call it “Hotel California” in reverse: He checked out, but he never left. In Denver, agents picked up a 14-year-old allegedly tied to a Tren de Aragua faction who was carrying a Glock and charged with attempted murder. And on Wednesday alone, ICE arrested a Cuban national convicted of DUI manslaughter in Florida and a Mexican national convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 in California, my home state.
The gang cases are allegations, and each deserves due process. Due process still needs somebody to make the arrest.
We already know what happens when nobody does. Jose Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to remain while his case crawled along. He was convicted of murdering nursing student Laken Riley and sentenced to life without parole. Congress answered with the Laken Riley Act, which requires detention of illegal immigrants charged with theft or burglary. In March, the man charged with killing Loyola freshman Sheridan Gorman in Chicago turned out to have entered illegally in 2023 and been arrested on shoplifting charges that year, according to DHS. He hasn’t been convicted yet. That was Stratton’s own state.
The abolitionists have a fair point to make. As of July, 70.6% of people in ICE detention had no criminal conviction, and 50% of Americans recently told YouGov they’d support abolishing the agency. That tally counts people awaiting criminal trial, and it ignores illegal entry unless a prosecutor bothered to charge it. The same pollster found 55% approve of enforcement “aimed at criminals.” That’s a mandate to aim ICE at the worst first. Abolition aims it at nobody. Thomas Sowell liked to say there are no solutions, only trade-offs. Here, the trade is fewer agents and more criminals and alleged hitmen on Main Street.
THEY CALLED ICE ‘KIDNAPPERS.’ THE PAPER PROVES OTHERWISE
The fix is simple. Fund ICE fully. Put violent and gang-affiliated cases at the front of the line, and publish the results. Expand the Laken Riley Act’s mandatory detention to assault and weapons charges. Tie federal law enforcement grants to honoring detainers for anyone charged with a violent felony. Then ask every Senate candidate one question before Nov. 3: Do you want ICE abolished, yes or no?
Cicero wrote that the safety of the people should be the supreme law. As a father of three sons, I’d settle for a party that treats it as a priority. Argue all you like about how the doorman does his job. Just don’t send him home and hope for the best.
Jay Rogers is a financial professional with more than 30 years of experience in private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and wealth management. He has a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice from Northeastern University and has completed postgraduate studies at UCLA, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. He writes about issues in finance, constitutional law, national security, human nature, and public policy.