Should ICE Be Abolished?

ICE, the Immigration of Customs Enforcement, has caused much conflict recently. Many believe that ICE needs to be abolished, but others believe that it is integral to the protection of the country. However, the more and more we learn about ICE, the easier it is to see that ICE needs to be reworked. One reason I believe makes this obvious is that ICE takes a very long time to approve requests for asylum, and they do not approve many. Additionally, many immigrants who do receive asylum still do not live the “American Dream.” ICE currently is not doing very much to protect our country, like it was created to.

In a recent interview with the Assistant Chief legal-counsel of ICE, I discovered that within the first 6 months of entering the country, an immigrant receives no help, and should hire an attorney. After that, they have around 2 years to plan their request for asylum, and they are not allowed to get a job during this time. Once 2 years have passed, if accepted, the immigrant can get get a green card, citizenship, and job. But if declined, they can either stay illegally, or leave the country. This is unacceptable because the immigrant came to America as a refugee, and they cannot go back to their country. If declined, they would have nowhere to go. ICE is ultimately breaking their own rules. They are forcing immigrants to stay illegally, with little to no chance of becoming a citizen. Although, immigrants who have a family member who's a citizen, and have been in the country for over 10 year are applicable to receive a citizenship, but that doesn't happen often. Also, many private organizations, like IRIS, do not have enough money to support these immigrants, especially as their numbers grow. Overall, ICE needs to be less strict or else even more immigrants will come in illegally.

In addition, if the immigrant does receive asylum, they still do not get desirable jobs. Colin Caplin, a New Haven historian, said that immigrants have the “dirty work” jobs: those that are low paying or unsafe. Immigrants should be able to get educated in America, so that they can learn English and get better jobs. If they were to get better jobs, than these immigrants would meet more people, and the divide between immigrants and citizens would be crossed. Plus, if the immigrant is not a citizen, they can still be deported. For example, someone could have been living in America for 7 years, with his American family, working as a car fixer, and then get a letter of deportation, which means he would have to be deported immediately. If I were an immigrant, I would not want to start my new life to know that I could be deported at any time.

If ICE really is trying its best to help American immigrants, instead of hurting them, there are many things that they could do. Some ways that they can do this would be hosting English language classes. They do have the money to do this, especially if they stop to reorganize their structure. Also, ICE could hire more employees so that these immigrants wouldn't have to wait to see if they are granted asylum for so long. ICE should be reworked to be made more efficient, and more helpful to the new immigrants in America.