Mayor De Blasio, Sen. Gillibrand Join Calls To Abolish ICE

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Mayor Bill de Blasio says he supports fellow Democratic politicians and protesters who are calling for the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.

"Every country needs reasonable law enforcement on their borders. ICE is not reasonable law enforcement. ICE is broken, it's divisive and it should be abolished," the mayor tweeted Friday.

Every country needs reasonable law enforcement on their borders. ICE is not reasonable law enforcement. ICE is broken, it's divisive and it should be abolished.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) June 29, 2018

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., made similar remarks in an interview Thursday night.

"I believe that it has become a deportation force, and I think you should separate the criminal justice from the immigration issues, and I think you should re-imagine ICE under a new agency with a very different mission and take those two missions out," she said.

I believe we need to protect families who need help, and ICE isn't doing that. It has become a deportation force. We need to separate immigration issues from criminal justice. We need to abolish ICE, start over and build something that actually works. https://t.co/JtSN68k4Fd
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) June 29, 2018

Rep. Nydia Velázquez, D-N.Y., gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon and congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have also called for the agency to be abolished.

About 100 protesters chanted "Abolish ICE!" as they marched through lower Manhattan Friday.

This comes after the controversial separation of migrant families who crossed the southern border illegally.