The House vote over supporting the beleaguered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency put Democrats in a politically awkward position — so most of them didn’t vote yes or no.
A total of 133 out of 193 Democrats elected to mark themselves “present” instead of casting an up or down vote. In California, where border issues are a major political flashpoint, eight state Democrats voted against the measure, two voted for it and 24 voted present. Another three California Democrats didn’t vote at all.
The measure is politically sensitive. Some Democrats publicly called for abolishing ICE, and then backed away from the position when House Republicans threatened to make them vote on a bill to abolish ICE.
The GOP didn’t go that far. What it did do this week was force a vote on a measure saying, “calls to abolish ICE are an insult to these heroic law enforcement officers who make sacrifices every day to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and protect our safety and security.”
It passed overwhelmingly, with only one Republican, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., voting against it.
Trump weighed in on the vote early Thursday in a tweet.
“The Democrats have a death wish, in more ways than one — they actually want to abolish ICE,” he wrote. “This should cost them heavily in the Midterms. Yesterday, the Republicans overwhelmingly passed a bill supporting ICE!”
Both parties have tried to portray the other as ineffective on immigration, with Democrats pointing to the lack of progress on Dreamers, those who came to the country illegally as children. Republicans are eager to strengthen border security.
Democratic leadership recommended its members vote present because the vote itself was a “sham,” according to a Democratic leadership aide who declined to be named.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, “has told members privately that this is a political vote and members should vote politically,” the aide told McClatchy, saying it meant the vote wasn’t substantive, so members should do what’s best for themselves in their district elections.
Congress routinely takes votes on nonbinding resolutions meant to express a commonly-held sentiment, including the Senate passing a measure unanimously Thursday to not allow the Russian government to interrogate U.S. citizens.
Democrats seemed to follow that advice — California Democrats in somewhat conservative districts voted yes, while those in safer Democratic districts either voted present or opposed it.
Multiple members who voted present told McClatchy the vote was a “distraction.”
“I chose not to engage in the Republicans’ political games, and am instead focused on holding the Trump administration accountable for their hostile policies,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-California.
Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, felt the same. His spokesman, Eric Olsen, called the vote a “political campaign stunt designed for attack ads.”
In June, Garamendi visited an ICE detention facility in Brownsville, Texas. He compared the conditions there to those of a prison.
“I will be haunted by what I saw for the rest of my life,” he wrote in an editorial.
Others who voted present, such as Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, said while they supported ICE agents, the agency itself needed to change.
“We would best protect our borders by following the recommendations of ICE agents to restructure the agency so that there is oversight by the Justice Department, and to direct our resources on protecting the American people from drug dealers, human trafficking, and terrorism,” Khanna said.
Among the eight who voted no on supporting the measure was Rep. Lou Correa, D-California, who said while he did support ICE officers he could not back a measure that included language such as “illegal aliens.” Correa hasn’t had a serious challenge in his district in years, coming out 30 points ahead in his top-two primary this year.
“I would have voted no on the elimination of ICE, but I voted no yesterday because the language in the resolution was a little bit outrageous and out there in my opinion,” Correa said.
Supporting the measure, along with nearly every Republican, were Democratic Reps. Jim Costa and Ami Bera. Costa narrowly came out on top in the top-two primary in his district this year, though he won handily in 2016. Bera narrowly kept his seat in 2016 but appears more safe this cycle after winning his primary by 20 points in June.
“It was a pretty straightforward resolution, on do we support the workers of ICE,” Bera said. “Now I certainly don’t support the policies that the administration is putting out there .... so we ought to focus on that, but to hold the workers accountable for Donald Trump’s policies, I don’t think is appropriate.”
Kate Irby: 202-383-6071; @KateIrby
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