Hundreds of women arrested in protest to abolish ICE - and a Democrat senator agrees

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.) joined hundreds of women who were protesting against President Donald Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration enforcement policy — and called for the abolishing of the immigration enforcement office.

'Unlawfully protesting'

Hundreds of women protested the detention of migrant families by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, D.C., at a building housing senators' offices.

U.S. Capitol Police arrested 575 people at the protest and they were charged with unlawfully protesting. Several Democrat lawmakers joined their demonstration, and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (Wash.) was arrested.

'It has become a deportation force'

Sen. Gillibrand went on CNN Thursday evening to clarify her call to abolish ICE.

"Well, I agree with it," she told Chris Cuomo of the position to abolish ICE. "I don't think ICE today is working as intended."

"Do you think you should get rid of the agency?" Cuomo asked.

"I believe that it has become a deportation force," she answered, using Trump's phrase, "and I think you should separate it, the criminal justice from the immigration issues and I think you should reimagine ICE under a new agency with a very different mission and take those two missions out."

Here's video of Gillibrand's comments on CNN:

"And so we believe that we should protect families that need our help and that is not what ICE is doing today and that's why I believe you should get rid of it," she concluded, "start over, reimagine it, and build something that actually works."

Gillibrand posted a video to her Twitter account while she was at the march.

Here's a news video of the march: