Abolish ICE
The federal immigration agency disrupts communities and families, for no good.

Federal agencies created in times of crisis are rarely well thought out, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is no exception. ICE's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, was created in 2002 in reaction to the previous year's September 11 attacks. The federal body tasked with handling all things national security was empowered, via ICE, to target and deport the country's largely peaceful population of undocumented immigrants—and ICE has operated as if those missions are two sides of the same coin.
ICE has several subagencies, but its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) component is both the largest and what most people think of when they hear ICE. Its mission is to find, arrest, and remove undocumented immigrants. In practice, that results in agents invading the personal and professional lives of migrants who have called the country home for years, are parents to U.S. citizens, and have contributed economically and socially to their communities, tearing all that apart over a long-ago border crossing or visa overstay. It is a militaristic mission that effectively turns nonviolent immigrants into fugitives.
Presidents may set different guidelines for ICE's enforcement wing. Some presidents have prioritized the removal of violent offenders and people deemed national security threats, deprioritizing those without criminal records or with only minor charges. But President Donald Trump broadened ICE's enforcement mandate significantly, essentially making all undocumented immigrants targets for removal.
Under those terms, ICE carried out controversial (and mind-boggling) enforcement activities against migrants who couldn't possibly pose a risk equal to the force used against them. There are countless such stories: An undocumented man driving without his license was bringing his pregnant wife to a scheduled cesarean section when ICE took him into custody; ICE fought to send Iraqi Christians back to a homeland where they feared persecution; it deported the caretaker of a 6-year-old paraplegic boy. Far from just targeting undocumented immigrants, ICE has swept up people of all immigration and residency statuses—from arresting a longtime legal permanent resident who was tending his lawn to mistakenly deporting dozens of U.S. citizens. Those stories may ebb and flow from administration to administration, but the potential for abusive enforcement is always there.
ICE has routinely shown itself to be an overreaching and unaccountable agency. Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology found that ICE has scanned the driver's license photos of one in three American adults and could access the driver's license data of three in four American adults. The agency boasts a "long history of impersonating police officers, abusing immigrants in ICE detention, [and] building a vast surveillance network of data purchased from brokers and other legally questionable means," reported Electronic Privacy Information Center Counsel Jake Wiener.
ICE's budget has steadily increased since the agency's creation in 2003, from $3.7 billion ($6.4 billion in current dollars) to $9.1 billion in FY 2024. The ERO's work force has nearly tripled in the same time period, reaching 7,711 in FY 2024. It's worth asking tough questions about the return on investment, but few politicians are willing to do so because they largely view ICE as an indispensable tool.
Many of the issues ICE purports to address would be better solved by overhauling the U.S. immigration system. The country's undocumented immigrants are overwhelmingly a benefit, not a liability. It makes far more sense to bring them out of the shadows by providing a pathway to citizenship than to use government force to upend their lives. Reducing the incentives that drive illegal immigration, such as expanding work visa pathways and streamlining visa and green card processing, would further reduce whatever issues ICE currently thinks it must solve.
ICE is tasked with disrupting American communities and families at great cost and little benefit to taxpayers. Some important duties fall under its umbrella—there is a role for the government to play in detaining and deporting actually dangerous migrants, for one—but such things were handled before its creation, and they can be handled again by relevant law enforcement agencies. ICE's current powers and central deportation mission are neither appropriately sized nor easily reformed. It would be much better for the government to extend an olive branch to nonviolent undocumented immigrants, reassign ICE's useful functions elsewhere, and let the agency go once and for all.
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After the millions (and Millions!) of illegal aliens have been removed from the nation and then after all govt welfare programs are ended, ICE can melt away.
The country's undocumented immigrants are overwhelmingly a benefit, not a liability
Objection.
Claiming facts not in evidence.
It makes far more sense to bring them out of the shadows by providing a pathway to citizenship than to use government force to upend their lives.
In what way did they earn citizenship?
Cmon. Mwdoc proved they weren’t a cost citing his evidence anyone who disagrees is a racist xenophobic person.
How many illegals are you paying for? If the answer is still 0 then fuck off and die
I always knew if Trump somehow returned to the White House, my favorite aspect of his victory would be the giant middle finger it extends to Koch-funded open borders fanatics. 🙂
The only time I can recall agreeing with Fiona, but she leaves out most of the equation.
Leave immigration to border parcel owners, and don't allow the government to own border parcels. Immigrants who are trespassers should be dealt with as trespassers everywhere -- warned to leave, shot if they don't, buried by back ho if necessary.
Get rid of all government spending on immigrants, legal or illegal. You want to live here? Do it on your own dime or the dimes spent by family and friends already here. But not mine.
Article IV. S4
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion"
My mother was dumb enough to follow all the rules when she came to this country. Eventually she brought her parents over, who had been denied visas under the quota system a quarter-century before. I guess they were losers and suckers too.
If you're here illegally then your community and family deserve to be disrupted.
We need to double ICE’s budget by cutting funding and services to illegals. How many plane tickets could we buy with the money spent on hotel rooms in NYC? ICE was not created out of crisis (9/11). It was the reorganization and amalgamation of long pre-existing entities (INS, et al) already performing the same functions under separate banners. Illegal aliens are breaking the law and should be removed. Full stop. If they have any assets here, they should be liquidated to pay the cost of their deportation. We don’t let drug dealers keep their cars.