‘Getting out while the getting’s good?’ Questions raised about ICE official’s exit

A top official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is stepping down from her post to launch a Republican campaign for Congress in Ohio, and “CNN This Morning” panelists questioned the timing.

Madison Sheahan announced Thursday she will leave the agency after less than a year to challenge incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), and her campaign seems to be shaping up as a test of voter support for ICE operations in the wake of the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good and ongoing chaos in Minneapolis.

“It will be a test for her,” said Vox podcaster Noel King. “I mean, I wonder why she’s stepping down. I mean, I saw this news and I was like, is she getting out while the getting’s good? I mean, really and truly, this does not seem, the job she’s in does not seem an enviable one at this time.”

Democrats are working to craft their own message around ICE, with Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) arguing that calls to abolish the agency altogether could be a repeat of the “defund the police” argument that turned away voters in 2020.

“I’ve interviewed Gallego and, you know, obviously he’s in a swing state, Arizona,” said New York Times podcaster Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “He’s had a pretty measured approach as senator to to this issue, and the messaging, I think, reflects that, which is abolish ICE is not a winning slogan. It was used as a cudgel in the same way that ‘defund the police’ was. Well, let me say this. It is not a winning strategy. Now, if the Democrats take over power, and if you have a Democratic president and if they decide to, you know, reconstitute ICE, I think that’s fine. But to run on this, I don’t think is the right tactic.”

“You want to do something later on because ICE has become this bloated agency, which it it frankly has under this president, very chaotic agency being used for things that it hasn’t traditionally been used for,” she added. “That’s one thing. But I don’t know that this is a winning argument for someone running in a local race, right, to to sort of have and certainly not for the national Democratic Party.”