Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is sticking to her far-left views on immigration despite a growing number of Democrats changing their tune on border security issues.
Ocasio-Cortez, a rumored 2028 presidential candidate who is viewed as a rising leader in the Democratic Party, renewed her calls for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a campaign email published Monday evening. The socialist firebrand’s decision to commit to a viewpoint out of step with a majority of voters comes as many Democrats have sought to distance themselves from the “abolish ICE” bandwagon that some strategists believe has hurt the party’s brand.
“I believe that ICE, an agency that was just formed in 2003 during the Patriot Act era, is a rogue agency that should not exist,” an Ocasio-Cortez campaign email said Monday slamming critics that consider the far-left congresswoman “extreme.”
The New York Democrat, who called for the abolition of ICE during President Donald Trump’s first term, also posted content to social media earlier this year advising illegal migrants on how to evade ICE arrests.
A majority of voters — including Democrats — appear to reject Ocasio-Cortez’s “abolition ICE” advocacy, according to recent polling.
Nearly seven in ten Americans support deporting migrants who are in the country illegally, an Axios-Ipsos poll from January found.
Additionally, 87% of voters approve of deporting illegal migrants with criminal records, according to a New York Times/Ipsos survey conducted in January.
Democratic strategist James Carville argued in March that Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election in part because former President Joe Biden listened to far-left activists on immigration issues.
“Every person in history that has listened, not just to the far-left in the United States but anybody in the West, that pays attention to the far-left has lived to regret it,” Carville told Piers Morgan. “These people have never been right about a single thing. Nothing, and they keep running their mouths.”
Some Democratic lawmakers have shifted rhetorically on immigration since the 2024 election and questioned far-left activist groups opposed to securing the border.
“The immigration groups have moved to a point where they say that they represent the voice of Latinos, and they don’t,” Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego told the New York Times in February. ” They’re not even close … Do not listen to immigration groups if they tell you that this is a representation of where Latinos are, because they are totally off.”
“We need to secure the border [and] make sure that it is safe and strong,” House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told the Daily Caller News Foundation during his weekly press conference in April.
The Laken Riley Act, the first piece of legislation which Trump signed into law during his second term, also received considerable support from Democratic lawmakers, including Gallego who co-sponsored the legislation in the Senate. The law requires the detention of illegal migrants accused, charged or convicted of an array of criminal offenses.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) took an apparent jab at Jeffries — implying that Ocasio-Cortez has more influence on the House Democratic Caucus than he does — while criticizing the New York congresswoman’s far-left policy agenda.
“House Democrat Minority Leader AOC is doubling down on their party’s most extreme, unhinged agenda, while the rest of her party is bending their knee to the radical wing,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said in a statement. “At this rate, the Democrat platform in 2026 will be a fever dream of defunding the police, wide open borders, and far-left hellscapes.”
A spokesperson for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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