The DNC Adopts a Resolution Calling on Congress to Abolish ICE — and a Second Resolution Calling to Reform It — as Jeffries Refuses to Back Abolition

August 15, 2026

At the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Austin, Texas, the DNC Resolutions Committee voted 25-12 on Thursday, August 13, 2026 to advance Resolution 27, which urges congressional Democrats to pass legislation eliminating US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and winding down the federal immigration detention system. The committee also advanced a separate resolution calling for ICE to be reformed rather than abolished. Both were bundled into a larger package and adopted by the full membership on a unanimous voice vote on Saturday, August 15 — leaving the party formally on record for two contradictory positions at once. Resolution 27 was introduced by Michele Johnson, a DNC committeewoman from Louisiana, who argued the party's caution is why voters do not trust it. Marge Hoffa, vice chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, objected that the DNC would be contradicting its own record of demanding reform. DNC Chair Ken Martin downplayed the vote, noting that official party positions are set in the quadrennial platform. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" the next morning, declined to endorse abolition and instead called for "dramatic, bold and transformational" reform — unmasking agents, body cameras, judicial warrants and state-level criminal accountability. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), on the same program, said he has called for abolishing ICE. Republicans moved immediately to make the vote a midterm issue: RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said Democrats "made it official," and the White House called the party "extreme radical Democrats."