Democrats Have Wanted to "Abolish ICE" Since 2018

The “Abolish ICE” discourse is back in the news as the Trump administration strengthened the agency that’s currently ripping families and communities apart.

And this state violence continues to increase, I keep seeing this narrative pop-up that "Abolish ICE" still doesn't have any real momentum.

Democratic politicians continue to avoid the calls to support it, and Liberal influencers/pundits continue to claim that the Democratic base doesn't support this "radical" movement (see the first 15 seconds of this video as an example).

So I wanted to show the evidence that clearly refutes this narrative that "Abolish ICE" isn't even popular among Democrats, because the evidence is quite clear when you look into it.

First-off, the claim that "Abolish ICE isn't even popular among Democrats" usually references one specific poll from AP-NORC poll in 2018, which showed only 24% overall support and 27% support from Democrats for abolishing ICE (see the below for the partisan breakdown of that poll).

While this poll does show Democrats are a -4 net oppose for abolishing ICE, they are clearly much more amicable than the other political groups (-24% for Indepenets and -34% for Republicans). That doesn't mean they supported the stance in this poll, but there's a clear difference between political affiliation even in the poll that these voices reference.

However, despite this being the commonly referenced poll whenever "Abolish ICE" is brought it, there are actually numerous polls that refute this hypothesis that consistently get ignored in these discussions.

To start off, a Politico poll measured from July 6 - 10 in 2018, found Democratic Men (41%) and Democratic Women (44%) each had a plurality in favor of abolishing ICE, albiet in a relatively small amount of (+2% and +13% net support respectively).

But that poll is the weakest of the ignored polls by pundits and mainstream media as there are two polling sources that measure clear support for Democrats supporting ICE. Let's dive into each.

YouGov Measured Clear Democratic Support For "Abolish and Replace ICE" In 2018/2019/2025

Since 2018, YouGov has measured the "Abolish ICE" question three separate times, and each poll showed strong plurality Democratic support (and even majority support) for Abolishing ICE.

Now the caveat with these YouGov polls is the question includes replacing it with an alternative agency, not just to Abolish ICE only.

• Exact question from YouGov survey: Do you support or oppose abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and replacing it with a different agency?

This change in wording definitely has an impact on the response, especially when you compare it to both the Politico and AP-NORC polls, which only asked about Abolishing the agency solely.

The value of this question being phrased like this shows a potential upper-limit of support for Abolishing ICE as it's phrased in a more acceptable way for the American voters, which shows a clear pushback against the apparent narrative that "not even Democrats support abolishing ICE".

But that's not all... because there's another poll that's been consistently tracking support for Abolishing ICE back in 2018 as well that completely refutes the "Democrats don't support Abolishing ICE" narrative.

CIVIQS Tracking Shows Dem Support For "Abolish ICE" Across 7 of The Past 8 Years

Since July 7, 2018, Civiqs has been consistently tracking support for "Abolishing ICE", and the results are quite clear.

Outside of the period in 2024 when Joe Biden & Kamala Harris embraced right-wing immigration stances, Democrats have clearly supported Abolishing ICE, from 2018-2023 and in 2025.

In-fact right now is the literal peak of Democratic support for Abolishing ICE at 63% support with a net support of +41%!

And if you look at the polling breakdown by sub-group, every single one of Democrats shows clear support for abolishing ICE, including 70% of 18-34 and 69% of Hispanic/Latino.

So, combining the CIVIQS tracking with the 3 YouGov polls, we can clearly say that the common consensus of Democratic voters want to Abolish ICE, despite the narrative perpetuated by Democratic politicians and media voices.

And we have to remember that this support is clear when the Democratic establishment continue to dismiss these calls.

Just imagine the kind of support it could get if Democrats actually embraced this movement...