First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Ramirez, who represents Illinois' 3rd District and serves as ranking member of a Homeland Security subcommittee, introduced the Reimagining Safety Act in Washington on Tuesday. According to her office, the bill would establish a new Department of Community Safety, dismantle the Department of Homeland Security while preserving CISA, FEMA, TSA and customs functions, abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection outright, redirect DHS funding to community programs, limit government surveillance, and begin building a separate civil immigration system.
"There are more than a million reasons to take action today. DHS must be dismantled and something new must take its place." — Rep. Delia Ramirez
Ramirez argues DHS was "founded out of a profound national trauma" and has become a weapon against the communities it was supposed to protect. The bill was designed with community organizations, is cosponsored by Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Adelita Grijalva and Jim McGovern, and carries endorsements from more than 40 advocacy groups. It follows her September announcement of the plan in Illinois and a run of anti-enforcement bills, including her Melt ICE Act.
The reality in Washington is different. Republicans control the House, and the Trump administration is running the largest deportation operation in American history, with ICE and CBP as its engine. A bill to abolish both agencies has no path to the president's desk in this Congress, and similar abolish-ICE proposals have never passed either chamber. Critics argue the plan would end interior immigration enforcement and border security as Americans know them, and hand every future illegal crossing a free pass.
That is what makes the bill matter anyway: it is a blueprint. It puts the furthest reach of the Democratic left's immigration agenda into legislative text — ready for the day their party holds power again — while the administration it targets keeps enforcing the law in the meantime.
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