Caitlin Dickerson

Usually when I hear abolish ICE, I think it's coming from the realization people are having about what our immigration laws actually are and what they allow, which is that

Anyone who does not have legal status in the country is subject to deportation.

It doesn't matter if you're best friends with a bunch of families at church.

It doesn't matter if you're beloved in your community.

You've lived here for 20 or 30 years.

You've never committed a crime.

You have a bunch of American children.

They're in the military.

You are subject to deportation if you don't have legal status.

And for the vast majority of the undocumented population, there is no pathway to legal status.

This is another thing that people don't realize.

I got an email from a reader after a recent story saying to me,

Caitlin, you're writing about all these people you say have been in the United States for 15 or 16 years.

Why don't they just become citizens instead of trying to leech off the system and refusing to pay taxes?

And I had to write this person back and say, undocumented immigrants contribute billions of dollars to the American tax base every year.

And trust me, if these folks in my story could have become citizens, they would have eagerly done so to avoid being detained and potentially deported.

after so much time in the country.

Those options do not exist, and Congress controls all of that.

ICE does not control that.

ICE can only do what the law tells it to do.