by Jennie Taer
A senior Biden administration immigration policy adviser has a history of working with organizations that have advocated to “abolish” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to documents from activist groups reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Ramzi Kassem, who joined the White House in 2022 as the senior policy advisor for immigration at the Domestic Policy Council, helped produce research reports with anti-ICE groups for the City University of New York’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), a group he founded in 2009. He and his organization directly collaborated with, and still list as partners, several groups that have pushed to scrap ICE altogether as well as defund police departments.
For example, the Marguerite Casey Foundation named Kassem a “freedom scholar,” a position reserved for those considered to be at the “forefront of abolitionist, Black, feminist, queer, radical, and anti-colonialist studies,” in 2020. The foundation’s then-vice president of programs Jonathan Jayes-Green said in 2020 that “we need to abolish ICE,” arguing that this “amoral, cruel and rotten system cannot be reformed.”
“It is clear based on their personal agendas that the senior officials in the Biden administration were hand-selected to carry out dangerous border security and immigration policies that have ultimately undermined our homeland security,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green told the DCNF of Kassem’s ties. “Putting a man who has supported such groups in such a high position of authority is incomprehensible, particularly at a time when our nation is facing significant, unprecedented national security threats.”
Additionally, CLEAR and the activist group Movement for Black Lives co-published “The Struggle for Power: The Ongoing Persecution of Black Movement by the U.S. Government” in August 2021; Kassem is listed as an “editorial” contributor for his work on the report. Movement for Black Lives is also listed as an “ally” of CLEAR, according to the CUNY group’s website.
Movement for Black Lives tweeted the hashtag “AbolishIce” in February 2021. The group also describes itself as an “abolitionist” organization and says “prisons, police and all other institutions that inflict violence on Black people must be abolished and replaced by institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives.”
In 2020, the group circulated a petition urging federal lawmakers to support legislation to “defund and dismantle ICE.”
CLEAR also produced a report with Asian Americans Advancing Justice that was submitted to the State Department Inspector General’s office in 2016. The report, titled “Stranded Abroad: Americans Stripped of Their Passports in Yemen,” lists Kassem as preparing and submitting the report.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice advocated on multiple occasions to “abolish” ICE between 2018 and 2020. The group is listed ally of Kassem’s organization.
Retired ICE Field Office Director and current board member with National Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE) John Fabbricatore told the DCNF he believes Kassem’s associations with anti-ICE groups reveals the Biden administration’s real priorities for immigration enforcement.
“With his support of ‘Abolish ICE’ activism and rhetoric ingrained in the president’s current agenda, his appointment surely enhances continued weakening of border security and minimizes immigration enforcement in the interior. Congress needs to take note of the policies and individuals driving a destructive agenda to dismantle our country’s immigration system and laws,” Fabbricatore said.
Additionally, CLEAR produced a report with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund titled “MAPPING MUSLIMS: NYPD Spying and its Impact on American Muslims.” Kassem is listed as an “editorial” contributor to the report.
CLEAR lists the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund as an ally on its website. The fund tweeted out the hashtag “AbolishICE” in 2018. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has also repeatedly advocated for a New York bill that would keep ICE authorities from making arrests outside of courthouses.
In September 2020, Kassem was a listed speaker for an event entitled “From the Streets to the Supreme Court: Protecting our Communities from Federal Repression” that featured both CLEAR and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is listed as a CLEAR ally on the group’s website.
In an August 2020 tweet, the Center for Constitutional Rights wrote “Defund the police AND Abolish ICE! Now!” The group has also advocated for the release of illegal immigrants from ICE detention.
During the event, Kassem applauded the Movement for Black Lives’ for pushing to defund police departments.
“In 2016, defunding the police was a part of M4BL’s [Movement for Black Lives] platform, right. So, already in 2016. Abolitionism generally in that point in time was at the margins of public discourse. The way in which talk about defunding police, talk about abolition has been mainstreamed in the last few months alone speaks to the power of protest that Thenjwe was just describing ,” Kassem said of what he called “the best demonstration of the power of protest.”
CLEAR also lists Black Lives Matter, left-wing megadonor George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the American Civil Liberties Union as “allies.”
While serving at the White House, Kassem is on leave from CUNY and is expected to return after the 2022-2023 school year.
The Biden administration has increased admissions of new immigrants and refugees into the country. The new administration has also been moving away from detention and deportation strategies to combat illegal immigration. While southern border crossings topped a record 2.3 million in fiscal year 2022, ICE removed roughly 72,000 illegal aliens, compared to roughly 185,000 in fiscal year 2020 when migrant encounters were lower.
Green believes there is no justification for Kassem to advise the White House.
“People like Kassem, who have such little regard for our nation, have no business sitting in a place of influence. Our Committee will continue conducting the utmost oversight over the Biden administration and the unfit individuals whose hands they continue to put Americans’ safety in,” Green told the DCNF.
The White House, Kassem and CLEAR didn’t respond to requests for comment.
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Jennie Taer is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Ireland Walker and Jack Applewhite contributed to this report.
