Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Illinois) has introduced a bill that would abolish not just ICE, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) altogether, repealing the 2002 law establishing the agency and replacing it with one focused on protecting civil and human rights.
The wide-ranging legislation, dubbed the Reimagining Safety Act, would repeal the Homeland Security Act. Signed by President George W. Bush as part of his administration’s post-9/11 “war on terror,” the transformational bill created DHS and led to the establishment of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The bill would abolish DHS, CBP, and ICE — going further than the progressive call to abolish ICE. Other offices currently housed within the department, like Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the customs functions of CBP would be broken off into different authorities.
“We know that DHS was intentionally established with an overbroad mission and unchecked power. The last two years have made it visible what so many communities have actually been saying for decades: That DHS, frankly, is the single greatest threat to our public safety today,” Ramirez said in a press conference previewing the legislation last month. “We must strip away every single tool they are using to terrorize us.”
In DHS’s place, Ramirez’s bill would create a cabinet-level “Department of Community Safety,” which would address community concerns ranging from gun violence to disaster relief, using a public health-based approach. All immigration detention centers would be shuttered.
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Judging by the usual Lemmy response, we’ll end up blaming Democrats.
Are people ‘blaming’ democrats or pointing out that until this point the vast majority have been perfectly happy continuing to have a paramilitary organization that didn’t exist prior to 2003 in charge of enforcement of a misdemeanor violation? Just so we’re all on the same page.
That’s a gross simplification, if you look at the budget and administration alone you can see two very different approaches. But you probably won’t do that so I can’t be bothered to engage any further.
Dang, it’s convenient you don’t have to present any evidence before declaring me wrong. Maybe someone else can list what legislative sessions had a majority of Democrats trying to eliminate ICE before last year. Because frankly I’m not impressed by “we only gave the Gestapo 85% of last year’s budget”.
It’s pretty great to be a democrat I guess.
You can do nothing and just be entitled to voted because the other party is so bad, right?
People have been laying out great cases on why the democratic party is beholden to the same donors and has not, and will not bring about any meaningful change. (Unless the leadership is completely changed and DSA candidates get in). The problem with their party are the neoliberals. They are not left wing, they are right wing. They will always side with business. They will NEVER give workers anything.
There are social Democrats, democratic socialists, and other progressives that need to be their own party