When a shooter opened fire on an immigration facility in Dallas last week, killing at least one migrant detainee in the process, it fit into a recent pattern of escalating tension — and violence — that has increasingly defined President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

At the center of this growing strain is one agency in particular: the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has been deputized to carry out Trump’s anti-immigrant directives across the nation.

The Republican response to the Dallas shooting was uniform: They condemned it as the latest example of left-wing inspired violence against law enforcement. Politicians, activists, and commentators rushed to count it as evidence that Democrats specifically were “inciting” aggression against ICE, aiding criminals, and hampering Trump’s agenda. “This violence is the result of the Radical Left Democrats constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to ‘Nazis,’” Trump posted on Truth Social. The White House then released a list of Democrats’ criticism of ICE, calling their words “a battle cry for violence.”

Democratic responses, meanwhile, were splintered. Most national Democrats have remained quiet — including candidates running in competitive battleground races like Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio and former Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina, and progressives in Congress. House and Senate leadership condemned violence against law enforcement, while Texas Democrats said, “no one — those in uniform, civilians, or immigrants — should be subject to the senseless violence.”

There are plenty of reasons more Democrats haven’t spoken up — many details are still unknown. But this split in reactions reflects a deeper divide between the parties and among Democrats. Republicans are all-in on ICE, while Democrats are coming to realize that they need to decide what to say, and what to propose to do, about the agency.

This debate stands to explode during the midterms and the run-up to 2028. Americans are growing more positive on immigration and more negative on ICE. Parts of the Democratic base are yearning for their leadership to fight Trump’s push for dramatic numbers of deportations. And it’s increasingly clear that the question of what to do about ICE, especially if and when Democrats regain power, is looming over the party’s leadership and prospective 2028 candidates.

The past few weeks have also seen a growing number of examples of apparent ICE agent overreach: viral videos of manhandling of civilians, arresting or harassing Democratic politicians themselves — such as those of a mayor and congresswoman in New Jersey and a mayor and congressional candidate in Illinois — and street patrols in major cities. The result? The debate among Democrats about ICE is going to grow more intense.

The case for avoiding the elephant-sized ICE agent in the room

Since Kamala Harris’s loss last year, the conventional wisdom has solidified: Americans backed Trump and the GOP over Democrats last year in part because of distrust and dissatisfaction with the........

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