Trump supercharged ICE. Now battleground candidates are scrambling for a message

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Set us as preferred WASHINGTON — Since the 2024 election, Democratic congressional candidates have reached a consensus about how to broadly discuss the border — make it secure — but they still lack a cohesive message about ICE.Some advocate abolishing the agency, while others offer visions for how to rein it in and reform it.

Meanwhile, for Republicans, President Trump’s immigration policies have offered a win on one issue (the border) while creating another issue that many voters find troubling (violence during raids).Some battleground Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump and have shifted from talking about mass deportations to emphasizing deporting criminals.Most voters don’t care more about immigration than the cost of living.

But it remains an important issue, and for both Republicans and Democrats, the balance in messaging about immigration is delicate, as about half of Americans see the administration’s tactics against immigrants as too aggressive.As the Nov.

3 midterms approach, Democratic candidates in various states including Illinois, Minnesota and New Jersey have said Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be abolished.In Michigan, progressive Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has said as much — and taken aim at fellow party members.“The idea that somehow we can’t say ‘abolish ICE’ because we’re so afraid of what they’re going to say, when we’ve seen ICE terrorize people in our streets,” he said before Michigan’s Senate primary in July.

“To me, it is exactly the kind of cowardice that we don’t need from Democrats.”The Democratic dilemma was crystallized last month when Democratic National Committee members approved dueling messages — one to abolish ICE, the other to reform it.Among those in the reform camp is Randy Villegas, the political science professor running against Rep.

David Valadao (R-Hanford) in California’s Central Valley.Ville...