A Democrat legislator has announced that he will introduce legislation to abolish US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), citing the Trump administration's misuse of the agency in the separation of children at the US-Mexico border.

Representative Mark Pocan, a Democrat Congressman from Wisconsin, pledged to introduce legislation "that would abolish ICE and crack down on the agency's blanket directive to target and round up individuals and families."

"From conducting raids at garden centres and meatpacking plants, to breaking up families at churches and schools, ICE is tearing apart families and ripping at the moral fabric of our nation," Representative Pocan said. "Unfortunately, President Trump and his team of white nationalists, including Stephen Miller, have so misused ICE that the agency can no longer accomplish its goals effectively."

Mr Pocan is part of a recent wave of Democrats that have promised to abolish ICE. California Senator Kamala Harris has said we may need to "start from scratch" in reexamining the agency. New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon has also called ICE a "terrorist organization."

Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, told Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman last Tuesday that she "would love to see ICE go." On Saturday, Representative Jim McGovern said at a town hall in Massachusetts, "ICE has turned into something that is not about enforcing immigration laws. It has turned into something that is dedicated to ripping families apart," Rep McGovern said. "The time has come to, as I've said, to re-evaluate what we have in place, to get rid of ICE."

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"Abolish ICE is not merely a slogan, it is a demand," said Sean McElwee, co-founder of Data for Progress who coined "Abolish ICE" as a hashtag in February 2017. "Every candidate running for President in 2020 will have to articulate a vision of a world without ICE."

Representative Pocan has been an outspoken critic of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has been on of Trump's most vocal supporters on immigration and who on 18 June ordered two dozen National Guard troops to the US border with Mexico.

The calls to abolish ICE come as the Trump administration continues to face criticism for its "zero tolerance" policy at the southern US border. Trump signed an executive order last week to end family separations that resulted from the policy.