Florida Democratic Senate candidate Angie Nixon has publicly called ICE agents “kidnappers” and “THUGS.”
Nixon, a Florida state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, is challenging incumbent Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL). Abolishing ICE is the centerpiece of her immigration platform, and her attacks on the agency have grown increasingly sharp.
On social media, Nixon called ICE agents “THUGS” in one post and described eliminating the agency as a “moral choice” in another. She has also accused ICE of acting like a “rogue paramilitary force” that “terrorizes our neighborhoods” and “operates completely in the dark.” She labeled ICE enforcement tactics “state-sanctioned violence” and called the agency a “weaponized paramilitary force that is designed to terrorize.”
According to a report from Breitbart News, video shows Nixon calling ICE officers “kidnappers” while also pushing to have their identities publicly exposed. Critics noted that unmasking agents could put them at risk from anti-ICE activists and protesters.
Nixon went further by comparing ICE detention facilities to “modern day concentration camps.” When confronted about the remark, she did not apologize. Instead, she escalated, going on to call ICE agents modern-day slave catchers.
She also made comments that appeared to suggest ICE officers could be shot in the line of duty. “We are a stand your ground state. I am concerned that some ICE officials might be shot,” she said. Nixon argued separately that ICE officers would racially profile and fatally shoot Black Americans.
“We’re black. They gonna profile us, too. They can’t tell the difference between a black American that is a descendant of slaves here in this country or someone from Jamaica or Nigeria,” she said. “They are going to racially profile us and they are going to escalate things and they are going to shoot and kill us.”
She added that sending her to Washington would allow for investigations into what she called “bad actors” inside the agency. “To arrest them and to put them in jail and to call for an end and an abolishment of ICE,” she said.
Nixon also claimed ICE was created specifically to target and profile the Muslim community in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Her comments place her among the more vocal abolish-ICE voices in the Democratic Party. As she makes her case against Moody, a Republican incumbent, Nixon shows no sign of softening her position. Whether those arguments resonate with Florida voters, or backfire in a state with significant law enforcement support, remains to be seen on Election Day.