Both of the Democrats vying to be the state’s next senator have sharp words for ICE, the Trump administration — and for each other: Progressive Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is attacking moderate Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) for pulling a “politically expedient” about-face after taking “pro-Trump” immigration votes last year but now pushing to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Craig was one of 46 House Democrats who crossed party lines two days after Trump’s inauguration to pass the Laken Riley Act, which allows for the detention of undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes. She later voted for a resolution that expressed “gratitude” for ICE along with a condemnation of antisemitism after an attack on a pro-Israel demonstration in Colorado.

“There’s a through-line from that first vote to where we are today,” Flanagan said in an interview Friday. “And this Senate race is a fundamental question about whether we’re going to have a United States senator who sticks to their values and truths, or someone who votes with Republicans and Donald Trump when it’s politically expedient.”

Craig fired back, accusing Flanagan of “turning her Senate campaign into the focus right now, when she should be joining me to fight the Trump administration and the lawlessness of Kristi Noem,” while noting the Laken Riley Act is “ironically … being used to release people now.”

Those tensions are emerging as public support for Trump’s immigration crackdown dips precipitously.

Just 38 percent of adults supported Trump’s handling of immigration in an Associated Press/NORC poll conducted after Good’s death, down from 49 percent last March. A survey from Democratic-aligned firm Navigator Research, also conducted after the shooting, showed 89 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of independents and a quarter of Republicans viewed ICE negatively. Most Democrats, 86 percent, and 60 percent of independents also felt ICE has been too aggressive, as did 31 percent of Republicans.

Congressional Democrats — including some more moderate members from swing districts — are now threatening to withhold necessary budget votes as they push for tougher rules for ICE agents and are signing onto progressives’ doomed Noem impeachment effort. They’re sensing they can put Republicans on defense as public opinion swings against Trump’s aggressive tactics, and as the president ratchets up tensions by threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act to send the military into Minnesota.

“Democrats have to take control of the House or the Senate and ensure that DHS doesn’t get any more than they’ve gotten, that they have actual guardrails, that there’s real reform,” said Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio), who’s running in one of the most competitive seats in the country. “Like this broken economy and the high cost of living, they’re going to own this public safety disaster.”

But Democrats face a series of primaries that will test how far to the left their base — and some of their most progressive candidates — will push them on immigration after the nation’s rightward shift on enforcement fueled the party’s electoral wipeout in 2024.

From Michigan to Illinois to New Jersey, progressive candidates are renewing calls to “abolish ICE,” defying centrists who are warning Democrats to stay away from a phrase they believe was politically poisonous in 2024 and could be again in 2026. And they’re joining Flanagan in attacking their more moderate rivals who crossed party lines last year to back the Laken Riley Act and the resolution thanking ICE for “protecting the homeland.”

Their first test comes next month in the special primary election for New Jersey’s blue-leaning 11th District, where progressive Analilia Mejia has emerged as the most outspoken candidate in the crowded field in calling to abolish ICE.

Mejia, who worked on Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, said her stance was influenced by “watching the escalation and unchecked violence that was just around the corner” last year when federal agents arrested one Democrat and charged another over a high-profile altercation at a detention center in Newark.

“You cannot bear witness to this overreach and this recklessness and not come away thinking all this has to stop,” Mejia said, adding that progressives are the “canary in the coal mine.”

In Illinois, the three Democrats running to succeed retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) are in a race to show who can be the most vocal in confronting ICE. Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced legislation last week calling for Noem’s impeachment, accusing her agency of abuses tied to ICE’s recent operations. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) quickly backed the bill and has separately called for increased congressional oversight of ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. “We must abolish Trump’s ICE. I will not support one more dollar for ICE as long as this agency—operating without oversight and accountability—continues to kill and injure our neighbors,” he told POLITICO in a statement.

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton called for ICE’s elimination. “New leadership or a smaller budget can’t change the fact ICE exists to terrorize communities,” she said in a statement to POLITICO. She’s also criticized Krishnamoorthi for backing the same resolution that praised ICE and that Flanagan has criticized Craig for in Minnesota. Like Craig, Krishnamoorthi has emphasized the resolution was mostly about condemning antisemitism.

ICE had already become a defining issue in the crowded Democratic primary for retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s Chicago and north suburban seat, an earlier focus of immigration crackdowns.

Many of those candidates flocked to ICE’s Broadview detention center earlier this year to protest ICE detentions. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss was tear gassed along with other protesters at the facility; social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh, one of his primary rivals, was thrown to the ground by an ICE agent and currently faces federal charges for conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer and assaulting or impeding an officer.

Biss has long called to abolish ICE, and has featured the issue prominently in campaign ads — including footage of him confronting Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino.

At a Thursday candidate forum, Biss told a crowd of more than 200 that short of abolishing ICE, Congress should also consider “rolling back ICE funding,” while Abughazaleh declared that “abolishing ice is at the top of my priority list.” State Sen. Laura Fine, who has introduced legislation in Springfield aimed at preventing ICE agents hired under the Trump administration from serving as police officers in Illinois, praised Kelly’s impeachment effort while posting on social media that it’s time “to get rid of ICE completely.”

In battleground Michigan, where Democrats are engaged in a bruising primary for retiring Sen. Gary Peters’ seat, progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed is renewing his longtime calls to abolish the agency he claims is “corrupted at its soul.” And he’s accusing his rivals, Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, of being mealy-mouthed on the issue, while knocking Stevens for backing the same resolution lauding ICE that has become a flashpoint in the Minnesota and Illinois Senate primaries.

El-Sayed said in an interview that calling to abolish ICE is “not saying there is not a responsibility to secure our border and even to undergo certain kinds of immigration enforcement — but this ain’t it.”

Stevens hit back in a brief interview Thursday, saying Trump’s immigration tactics are “clearly an abuse of power. ICE is out of control, and we need to get answers and rein it in.” But as for abolishing the agency, she said, “I don’t believe that.” McMorrow, meanwhile, told POLITICO that Congress should use its budgetary powers to “reform the agency.”

These primary schisms reflect broader ideological fights playing out within the party over immigration. Progressive groups are calling on Congress to “defund ICE” over the Minnesota shooting. Centrists scarred by words like “abolish” and “defund” after Republicans successfully weaponized “defund the police” and ran hard on cracking down on illegal immigration in 2024 are warning the term will be equally “politically lethal” if applied elsewhere. Polls show Americans are split: An Economist/YouGov survey conducted after Good’s death found 46 percent support abolishing ICE while 43 percent oppose it.

Republicans see opportunity in the infighting.

“The radical ‘Abolish ICE’ crusade from far-left Democrats seemed like a relic of the past, but it’s the brand new litmus test for Democrats who are barely hanging on and begging on their knees to get approval from their socialist base,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement to POLITICO. “The full embrace of their deeply unpopular, lunatic policies exposes the brain rot that has taken over the Democrat Party.”

In some of the most competitive races this year, candidates are keeping their distance from the rallying cry. Brian Varela, who is running in the crowded Democratic primary to take on Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.), has frequently joined protests against a potential immigration detention facility in the district. But he won’t go as far as advocating for abolishing ICE, saying that “it’s not what people want.”

“That is the very last thing that the Democratic Party needs to do right now,” Varela said. “The truth is we need to reduce ICE, we need to train ICE, we need to roll back all ICE investment. If Democrats start messaging to abolish ICE, we’re going to have a very tough time in November.”

Adam Wren contributed to this report.