PHOENIX - All over the United States, calls to "Abolish ICE" became rallying cries. Protesters have been calling for the elimination of the program in the wake of the latest fight over immigration.
Many protests around the country centered on policy that separated children from their parents when immigrants illegally crossed the border.
President Donald Trump responded on Twitter over the weekend, tweeting that the "liberal left" wanted to abolish ICE and create open borders, after which Trump claimed, “crime would be rampant and uncontrollable.”
ICE, or the U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement agency, was created after 9/11 and is charged with enforcing immigration laws within the country, among other things.
“I don’t think anybody is technically saying let’s get rid of say immigration enforcement” immigration attorney Ira Azulay said.
According to Azulay, just abolishing ICE without a replacement would leave holes in the system.
“So If we look at some of the details of what ICE does, [like] custody management, so people already in detention, nobody is saying we can no longer detain people. Nobody is saying it can't be there. Clearly, someone would have to do that” Azulay said.
It's also unlikely that the agency would be abolished.
According to Stephen Yale-Loehr, a Cornell University Law School professor who has written extensively on immigration law, ICE's detractors don't have the votes on either side of the aisle to shut it down.
While the services may be vital, the policy surrounding ICE is what's causing most of the uproar.
“I think what is going on is the agenda of ICE or the policy of ICE has taken a deviation from where it is.” Azulay said. “Some of those original intents are good. We do need better unification to deal with some of these problems, but I don’t think we got it from what we have today. And I think that’s why the movement makes sense from a discussion point.”