‘People Need to Go to Prison’

‘Organizations that are used to kidnap Americans are not organizations that should exist in the future,’ the Maine Democrat says

WINDHAM, Maine—Senate candidate Graham Platner (D., Maine) called to abolish ICE and force agents to testify before Congress—his most aggressive comments on the agency to date.

“People need to go to prison. We need to have public hearings, public, frankly, probably trials down the road, because the American people deserve to know what the hell is going on right now, and how the people doing it can justify it to themselves,” Platner said Saturday during a town hall in the southern Maine town of Windham. “If I have my way, even if we can’t get anything to happen in the Justice Department immediately, I want to drag every single ICE agent that’s been wearing a mask in front of a Senate subcommittee, make them take their mask off, and explain to the American people what the hell they’ve been up to.”

Platner went on to call ICE agents “masked armed thugs” and accused them of “kidnapping people off the streets of the United States because of their skin color.”

“Organizations that are used to kidnap Americans are not organizations that should exist in the future,” he said. “Down the road, hopefully once we’ve rebuilt the power, there needs to be accountability for what’s happening right now.”

Since President Donald Trump launched his crackdown on illegal immigration, Democrats have consistently condemned ICE, but calls to outright abolish the agency have largely faded. Still, the agency has remained a left-wing bogeyman, with “Fuck ICE” signs littering far-left protests against the president.

While Platner said he wanted to “drag every single ICE agent in this country with no mask on” before Congress during a Nov. 15 town hall in Bucksport, Saturday was the first time he outright said the agency should be abolished entirely.

Platner’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.