Overview
- Third Way and the Searchlight Institute released guidance on Jan. 14 advising against the 'Abolish ICE' slogan in favor of accountability-focused reforms.
- Searchlight’s memo, written by Blas Nuñez-Neto, links anger over the killing of Renee Nicole Good to 2020’s 'defund the police' debate and labels abolition an extreme position.
- Third Way counseled messaging like 'abolish abuses, not ICE' with an emphasis on curbing unaccountable uses of force, transparency, and retraining.
- Progressive voices, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley, renewed abolition calls and demanded an independent investigation into the Minneapolis shooting.
- Commentators challenged the memos’ assumptions using YouGov polling that reportedly shows support for abolition roughly matching opposition, and no party-wide messaging shift has been announced.