According to a recent study, half of American women want to get rid of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency completely. This comes a week after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, according to one new poll.
Many Democratic lawmakers, especially the progressive Squad made up mostly of women of colour legislators, supported the idea of getting rid of ICE during President Donald Trump’s first term. But whether to press further to eliminate the agency is a hot topic within the party.
This month, Congress will have to fight over spending again. Democrats don’t have much power right now, especially in the Senate, where the midterm elections are shaping up to be very complicated. Because of this, most of the messaging about getting rid of the department has come from House lawmakers, including a group of women who have already been very vocal.
“I want everyone to know that the cuts to your health care are what is paying for this.” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters this week, “All of that extra money was taken out and given to ICE.” “You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs on the street who are shooting mothers in the face.”
Democrats who spoke to The 19th all agreed that something has to be done right now to restrict ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after an officer shot 37-year-old Renee Good in her vehicle on tape. They said the video was a scary reminder that the agency needs stricter rules, but there is still a dispute inside the agency about how far Congress should go.
For the first time, more Americans favour getting rid of the agency than against it, according to polls from YouGov and The Economist this week. Women are more likely to support the end of the programme, with 50% in favour, up from only 28% in June. This and other recent poll findings show a big change in public opinion.
In the past, people have not supported getting rid of ICE, even when they were less supportive of its activities. Delia Ramirez, a representative from Illinois who has been against Trump’s plans to deport a lot of people for a long time, talked about the new polls that showed a plurality or majority of respondents calling for the agency to be shut down completely: “Not defund [or] take some money from them completely get rid of ICE as an organisation.”
It now makes members of Congress think about what it means. Democrats have suggested a variety of ways to limit ICE’s power. Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar has proposed getting rid of the agency, and legislators have also recommended limiting “excessive force” by federal immigration officials and making it easier for personnel to be recognized.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus almost unanimously voted against giving the DHS more money without making changes. On Tuesday, Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly and more than 50 other lawmakers filed articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
But most Democrats, and especially the Republicans who control Congress and the White House right now, don’t want to completely defund or break up the agency. In 2018, leftist congressional candidates made getting rid of ICE a major campaign issue.
This was made worse by Trump’s policy of separating families at the border throughout his first term. Ocasio-Cortez became one of the most vociferous supporters of abolishing the agency, and other presidential candidates joined demands to seriously rethink ICE’s role in enforcing immigration laws before they launched their national campaigns.
A lot has changed in politics since the House last formally took up the subject in 2018. At that time, more than 130 Democrats voted “present” to avoid getting additional criticism during a heated midterm year, when they gained dozens of seats and turned the House blue. Since then, the party has had a hard time coming together on a message amid intensifying anti-immigrant sentiment, culminating in the 2024 election.
However, the administration’s harsh enforcement methods have made it more urgent to look at the agency’s role. House Speaker Mike Johnson has had members of his own party vote against him several times, and his already small majority has shrunk further. This means Democrats could get changes passed with smaller majorities than they thought. But the Republicans still control Congress and the White House.
Last year, the GOP set aside a record $178 billion for the DHS budget. Chris Murphy, the leading Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, has suggested further limits on ICE and has also been working to develop a coalition that might help them vote in the future. But this year, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others are unlikely to block government discussions again, as they need to win back important Republican seats to stay competitive.
The center-left research tank Third Way called the stance “politically lethal” and “emotional” in a document. The party’s more centrist wing is cautious about discussing breaking up the department in harsh terms on the campaign trail.
Some Democrats are making it plain that they don’t want to get rid of immigration enforcement itself, and they don’t want talks to be caught up in catchy phrases in the larger wave of fury against DHS. Ocasio-Cortez didn’t say whether the phrase “Abolish ICE” will be used a lot in her colleagues’ 2026 campaigns. She said, “It’s really about who you are and what you’re running for.”
Over the last week, Democrats have spoken a lot about Good’s position as an American citizen, how ICE has only been around since 2003, and how immigration enforcement may be done in other ways. Ramirez and other lawmakers argued, however, that Congress has to do something about the rising anger with ICE, even if it’s just changing the way they talk about it.
People keep asking, “Is it a bad hashtag?” Is it going to lose elections? “Is it going to kill us in 2026?” Ramirez said this to The 19th. “People are saying we need serious accountability, no matter what you call it.” ICE can’t keep going the way it is now. Members of Congress need to figure out what the actual language looks like for them, but they also need to show their constituents that we’re doing something about it.
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