ugh will I get hate if I say that I understand why abbot's character was potentially going to be given a storyline or scene in s2 showing him to be more ambivalent/neutral/unbothered by ICE? because I think a lot of jack abbot lovers don't actually ever deep dive into his character at all, or put as much weight into his continued involvement in the american military industrial complex as they should- hence why people are acting like this would've been a totally shocking writing choice when it actually wouldn't.
in many ways, despite his obvious belief in women's rights, and helping those in need when it comes to medication or insurance issues, and his left wing social beliefs in that regard, the character jack abbot is already shown to be less bothered by ICE (or, bothered in a different, less immediate way, I'll explain) than the majority of other characters.
you must remember that jack abbot is canonically 1)- still heavily involved in the realms of military and law enforcement and is not morally bothered by this at all as far as we've seen 2)- actually responds far less empathetically or disturbed than the rest of the characters when he learns jesse has been taken- he asks "what jesse did", implying that although he isn't pro ICE, he still defaults to believing that "law enforcement" (not that ICE really fits that category) is acting rightly and in pursuit of justice before he thinks about it any harder.
and look, i understand why they removed the scene/plotline, and i understand why it's for the absolute best that they did (and agree)- but what I ALSO understand is why it was on the table as a decision. jack abbot canonically may be left wing in social issues, but he is still DEEPLY entrenched in a military mindset and has a lot of views that mean he is absolutely NOT the uber-woke figure he's painted to be.
real people are walking contradictions, and i would say jack abbot is one of the most contradictory characters we've seen- which is why he's well written. he's pro women, pro universal healthcare, pro lgbtq, but he's ALSO still pro military and law enforcement to quite a high extent when compared to the rest of the ER. even when he does have moments of criticising the military, like with the dead veteran in s1, he isn't critical of their role as soldiers complicit or actively guilty in civilian murder, hes critical of the fact they got hurt. he's not deconstructed his involvement at all.
so, don't slander the writers. they made a storyline that would have made a pretty decent amount of sense given who jack abbot ACTUALLY is as a character. of course, taking it out/lessening it was the right choice i think, and they realised that too. stop pretending the writers pulled this out of their ass, and understand who jack abbot is. it's good they took it out, but there was a genuine reason it was almost put in.