Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
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Society
/ February 12, 2026
Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
Forget the useless so-called “reforms” to ICE and policing currently on offer. We need much more fundamental change.
Andrea J. Ritchie
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US federal immigration agents patrol in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 4, 2026.
(Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them—including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago—has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence.
Meanwhile, hopes placed in Democrats to save us by finally recognizing that the police state they have helped build is the vehicle through which authoritarianism is being consolidated are repeatedly dashed. This is true of the party’s recent, tepid proposals to put “guardrails” on ICE.
The plan calls on agents to stop wearing masks; identify themselves; don body cameras and standardized uniforms; follow existing laws that prohibit racial profiling and require a warrant for agents to enter private property; and verify whether a person is a US citizen before detaining them (thus continuing to legitimize detention of non-citizens).
All of these small fixes patently fail to present any real challenge to the systems and agencies that are waging war on our communities—though, if agreed to, they would clear the way for Democrats to vote for record funding for ICE.
The proposed “reforms” advanced in the face of mounting calls to defund and abolish ICE are simply a rogue’s gallery of the usual suspects trotted out whenever the violence of law enforcement shocks the public conscience. As discussed in detail in No More Police: A Case for Abolition, a book I cowrote with Mariame Kaba, they have been touted and tried over and over for decades, and in some cases, centuries, without changing the fundamental nature and practices of policing.
The failure of body cameras to prevent police violence while increasing the surveillance that fuels incarceration, detention, and deportation machines has been well documented. As widely reported, the agents who killed Good and Pretti were already wearing body cameras–as is the case for countless cops who have committed egregious violence on camera over the past decade. Yet policymakers continue to pour millions into the pockets of corporate cronies who sell them as solutions.
Prohibitions on racial profiling …
Every delay has consequences.
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Current Issue
Society
/ February 12, 2026
Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
Forget the useless so-called “reforms” to ICE and policing currently on offer. We need much more fundamental change.
Andrea J. Ritchie
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
US federal immigration agents patrol in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 4, 2026.
(Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them—including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago—has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence.
Meanwhile, hopes placed in Democrats to save us by finally recognizing that the police state they have helped build is the vehicle through which authoritarianism is being consolidated are repeatedly dashed. This is true of the party’s recent, tepid proposals to put “guardrails” on ICE.
The plan calls on agents to stop wearing masks; identify themselves; don body cameras and standardized uniforms; follow existing laws that prohibit racial profiling and require a warrant for agents to enter private property; and verify whether a person is a US citizen before detaining them (thus continuing to legitimize detention of non-citizens).
All of these small fixes patently fail to present any real challenge to the systems and agencies that are waging war on our communities—though, if agreed to, they would clear the way for Democrats to vote for record funding for ICE.
The proposed “reforms” advanced in the face of mounting calls to defund and abolish ICE are simply a rogue’s gallery of the usual suspects trotted out whenever the violence of law enforcement shocks the public conscience. As discussed in detail in No More Police: A Case for Abolition, a book I cowrote with Mariame Kaba, they have been touted and tried over and over for decades, and in some cases, centuries, without changing the fundamental nature and practices of policing.
The failure of body cameras to prevent police violence while increasing the surveillance that fuels incarceration, detention, and deportation machines has been well documented. As widely reported, the agents who killed Good and Pretti were already wearing body cameras–as is the case for countless cops who have committed egregious violence on camera over the past decade. Yet policymakers continue to pour millions into the pockets of corporate cronies who sell them as solutions.
Prohibitions on racial profiling …
Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
Every delay has consequences.
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Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
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Magazine
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Politics
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Economy
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Current Issue
Society
/ February 12, 2026
Abolition Is Still the Only Way Out of This
Forget the useless so-called “reforms” to ICE and policing currently on offer. We need much more fundamental change.
Andrea J. Ritchie
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
US federal immigration agents patrol in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 4, 2026.
(Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)
As the scale and scope of state violence against migrants and the neighbors and community members who protect them—including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffrey Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis and of Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas González by ICE in Los Angeles and Chicago—has rapidly escalated over the first year of the second Trump administration, so have the familiar calls for quick fixes for state violence.
Meanwhile, hopes placed in Democrats to save us by finally recognizing that the police state they have helped build is the vehicle through which authoritarianism is being consolidated are repeatedly dashed. This is true of the party’s recent, tepid proposals to put “guardrails” on ICE.
The plan calls on agents to stop wearing masks; identify themselves; don body cameras and standardized uniforms; follow existing laws that prohibit racial profiling and require a warrant for agents to enter private property; and verify whether a person is a US citizen before detaining them (thus continuing to legitimize detention of non-citizens).
All of these small fixes patently fail to present any real challenge to the systems and agencies that are waging war on our communities—though, if agreed to, they would clear the way for Democrats to vote for record funding for ICE.
The proposed “reforms” advanced in the face of mounting calls to defund and abolish ICE are simply a rogue’s gallery of the usual suspects trotted out whenever the violence of law enforcement shocks the public conscience. As discussed in detail in No More Police: A Case for Abolition, a book I cowrote with Mariame Kaba, they have been touted and tried over and over for decades, and in some cases, centuries, without changing the fundamental nature and practices of policing.
The failure of body cameras to prevent police violence while increasing the surveillance that fuels incarceration, detention, and deportation machines has been well documented. As widely reported, the agents who killed Good and Pretti were already wearing body cameras–as is the case for countless cops who have committed egregious violence on camera over the past decade. Yet policymakers continue to pour millions into the pockets of corporate cronies who sell them as solutions.
Prohibitions on racial profiling …
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