Reigning in versus Defunding ICE

 

There is a factional disagreement on our side on how to handle the Homeland Security shutdown and ICE.

On the one side are people, including most Democrats in Congress, who want to make any funding for ICE and Border Patrol conditional on serious laws reigning them in.  On the other side are people who propose denying ICE and Border Patrol any funding whatever regardless.  The argument for no funding as that La Migra hasn't shown any disposition to obey laws up till now, so why should they start just because Congress passes some.  Sure, they also have a large war chest, but at least we should make them spend it down, and the prospect of not receiving new funding for the next two if Democrats win the midterms will discourage any further expansion.  The opposing argument is that even if withholding funds crimps La Migra's expansion, it will not make the goons behave any better, and they can wreck a lot of havoc before midterms.

I see a great deal of merit to both viewpoints.  However, ultimately, I would come down on the side of enacting laws to reign La Migra in.  If ICE's annual budget is about $10 billion and their war chest is $75 billion, then they have enough funds to keep going at their present rate until the end of Trump's term and his predecessor's term even if they do not receive any additional funding.  Their present behavior is not tolerable, not for months, let alone years.

On the other hand, lawless as La Migra has been, they have not been wholly impervious to legal, judicial, and political pressure.  Restraining orders have had at least some effect on them, even if it has not been enough, and the outcry appears to have made them at least somewhat less trigger happy.  Making the laws they are breaking crystal clear and leaving no room for ambiguity will make it a least somewhat harder for La Migra to defend breaking them.  Laws alone will not reign in La Migra, but unmistakably clear laws, combined with courts ordering compliance and unrelenting political pressure might just begin to reign ICE in right now, as opposed to after some future election.  And reigning La Migra in now is vital to ensuring that there will be free and fair elections down the line.

PS: One other obvious reason: So long as La Migra is uncertain whether it will receive funding, it will have at least some incentive to show some restraint.  It the answer is a firm and unequivocal no, all such incentive disappears.