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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Can we add “abolish conservatism” to the bill? If not, this shit will all come right back. As long as conservatives (incl. neoliberals) exist, oppression will exist.
While we can be wishful, conservatives will always exist, and it would be better to prevent them from doing more damage.
It would, however require constitutional amendments that would essentially neuter the Unitary Theory of the Executive.
In my head, it would give each branch of government it’s own physical law enforcement.
And money generated or excess received by the branches must still be appropriated by Congress without exception.
the electoral college should be ended and ranked choice become required.
Undo citizens united
Do something to get people with actual brains running for office. No idea how to do this one though.
To the last, important to start by defining “brains” and maybe more important is starting with empathy.
Need to tie their time in office to measurable goals related to quality of life for the people who actually need help in the country. Miss those milestones and you are unable to run for reelection. Maybe also something akin to the honorable or dishonorable discharge in the military. Something that does you, good or bad.