House Democrat introduces bill seeking to cut ICE, CBP, replace DHS

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) introduced a bill Tuesday to overhaul U.S. immigration agencies, including replacing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with a new “community-centered” department.

The “Reimagining Safety Act” would abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as well as dismantle DHS, replacing it with a new agency called the “Department of Community Safety.” The bill would preserve non-immigration functions of DHS, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration.

“Every person dead in detention, shot or killed by ICE and CBP, every neighbor deported to a third country, every family separated … is a reason DHS must be dismantled and something new must take its place,” Ramirez said in a statement.

Ramirez, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee and a frequent ICE critic, has repeatedly called to abolish ICE and dismantle DHS in the past. After federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens as part of an immigration operation in Minneapolis in January, Ramirez marched alongside protesters in the city.

President Trump’s immigration agenda has become unpopular with voters, despite it being one of his strongest issues in the 2024 campaign. An AP-NORC poll released Oct. 1 found that just 39 percent of Americans approve of the president’s handling of immigration.

Trump allies have suggested Trump’s efforts to end illegal immigration to the country were successful, and that voters are not giving him credit for those wins. His critics argue his strict policies going after legal and illegal immigrants in the U.S. have turned off voters.

Some Democrats have avoided calls to abolish ICE entirely, though the idea did gain traction following those fatal shootings. A January Economist/YouGov poll found that more Americans supported abolishing ICE than opposed it, 46 percent to 43 percent.