WASHINGTON (February 6, 2026) – Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) penned this op-ed for Fox News arguing that the calls to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could backfire as quickly as the defund-the-police movement did in 2020.
Key excerpts of the op-ed are below:
“As I’ve watched the protests in Minneapolis, it seems obvious to me that America is at risk of falling face-first into another disastrous anti-law enforcement crisis.”
. . .
“It was weapons-grade stupid to defund the police in 2020. It is just as dumb to defund ICE today. From terrorists entering the country to cartels smuggling people and drugs into our communities, President Joe Biden’s open border policies were a disaster for the security and prosperity of the United States. President Trump may have made it look easy to secure the border, but it wasn’t. ICE and Border Patrol worked hard from day one to restore order at the border.
“No one wants to see violence in our streets, but we have got to learn the lessons of 2020 and recognize that good law enforcement is the solution, not the problem.”
Read Kennedy’s op-ed here.
