Thread by @moira

So this thread on #abolishICE took off, and clearly hit a nerve. Mostly of people open to learning, just like I did. And since I'm not the expert, I wanted to share a few nuggets shared with me. 1/

https://twitter.com/moira/status/1012896882379673600

The first is this piece showing that #ICE investigators are flagging the problem too. They can't work on the issues that are a thread to national security. 2/
texasobserver.org/ice-hsi-letter…

This made me 😳. They site that their mission, though separate from detention and removal is impacted by the politics. THAT is making us less safe. 3/

the second is from everyone's favorite future member of Congress, @Ocasio2018 who makes a pretty reasonable oversight case. 4/

It's commonly accepted that @DHSgov does not have strong oversight capacity of the 26 agencies it oversees. The agencies love that. In many cases they have statutory authority that predates the 15 yo Department where technically they don't have to check with DHS on things. 5/

The link for the Intercept article quoting @Ocasio2018 (as well as a few old school Dems who may be re-thinking their position in the wake of Joe Crowley's defeat) is here. theintercept.com/2018/06/27/abo… 6/

The last is a failure on my part: when we critique agencies we have a tendency to focus on the bad and not the good. And to the credit of the 5 people who dreamt this up in the first place, they were focused on the good government could bring to bear and the people who do it. 7/

Agents break big cases on smuggling and drugs and do serious work that protects America. They die doing that duty. So when they ask for their agency to shut down, want to move out and tell us the politics are out of hand, it might be a good idea to listen to them. 8/

Also, lets not overstate the extremity of abolishing a 15 yo agency. Feds will still have jobs, and done responsibly it can actually help the missions being currently ignored. We have done this. We moved rebuilding out of FEMA and to DHS. We moved FPS into DHS. Did you notice? 9/

Since it's formation, DHS has absorbed ODP (formerly Justice), FPS (formerly GSA), NCS (now in NPPD) and OHA and DNDO are now CWMD. Get all that? Congress hasn't given a flip about any of this. So don't overstate the panic. END 10/10

*rebuilding moved to HHS from FEMA. Typo.