Democrats Push Plan to Tear Down the Country’s Main Immigration Agency

Democrats are pushing a plan to tear down the country’s main immigration agency, and two lawmakers are leading the charge. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) has introduced the Reimagining Safety Act, which would end the Department of Homeland Security entirely. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) has put forward her own legislation to shut down ICE over 12 months and then set up a commission to suggest how its duties should be handled instead.

Ramirez has described herself as a “proud anchor baby,” a phrase she has used before to describe her status as a child born abroad whose parents later became permanent residents.

Ramirez’s Bill Goes Further

Ramirez’s bill goes beyond Jayapal’s by ending some DHS functions entirely and moving others to different departments. The Reimagining Safety Act is the most comprehensive effort to abolish ICE among Democratic proposals, according to the reporting.

The two bills target the same agency but take different paths to get there. Jayapal’s approach keeps the functions running while a commission studies them, while Ramirez’s bill cuts them off immediately.

The Two Plans Compared

Ramirez’s bill is the more aggressive of the two.

What Ending DHS Would Mean

The Department of Homeland Security was created after the September 11 attacks, bringing together agencies with duties ranging from border security to disaster response. Dissolving it would require Congress to pass new laws assigning those duties elsewhere.

The Reimagining Safety Act would do that work. Ramirez’s bill would move some DHS functions to other departments and end others entirely.

The Political Climate

Both bills are pending, and neither has moved past committee.

The two plans sit alongside other Democratic proposals that would loosen restrictions on legal immigration. Taken together, they represent a sweeping overhaul of the federal government’s approach to borders and enforcement.

Where the paper stands

The paper backs neither Ramirez nor Jayapal, but supports returning immigration enforcement to local law enforcement rather than building a new national bureaucracy to replace it. Both bills would hand over immigration duties to some new office or commission, and the paper opposes any such office gathering more power, whatever its name or purpose.

Jayapal’s plan keeps ICE running while a commission studies its duties, which gives the paper no reason to prefer it. Ramirez’s bill ends DHS entirely, including border security and disaster response functions that have nothing to do with immigration enforcement. The paper would oppose that too, since it hands over power to other departments without a clear plan.

What the paper wants instead is for local police to enforce immigration law directly, as they did before DHS existed. The reader should watch for any proposal that adds a new layer of bureaucracy between citizens and enforcement, whether it calls itself a commission or something else.

Key Facts

• Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) introduced the Reimagining Safety Act
• Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) introduced legislation to dissolve ICE over 12 months
• Ramirez has described herself as a “proud anchor baby”
• The Reimagining Safety Act is the most comprehensive effort to abolish ICE among Democratic proposals
• Neither bill has been voted on

What Comes Next

The bills remain in the early stages of the legislative process. Neither has been voted on, and neither has been assigned to a floor vote.

Whether the proposals can pass the Senate is unknown. The bills are ambitious, and they are being treated as serious proposals by their sponsors. Whether they become law is another matter entirely.

The reporting also notes that Ramirez has described herself as a “proud anchor baby.” That phrase appears to refer to her status as a child born abroad whose parents later became permanent residents.

The bills are pending, and their fate depends on the coming session of Congress. For now, they stand as the clearest signal yet of what Democrats want immigration policy to look like.

See the a run of 14 images at the Washington Examiner.

border · DHS · ICE · immigration · politics