No paramilitary in America

Simple but Not Easy

This week, the House of Representatives will vote on the final four appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2026. I will vote No on the measure to fund Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE’s annual funding was already tripled, adding $75B over four years to its base budget, in last year’s partisan health-and-tax-cuts bill. Immigrant detention now receives more money than all federal operations on crime, drugs, guns, corruption, and domestic terrorism.

With higher funding and lower standards, ICE has morphed from targeted immigration enforcement into a presidential paramilitary. I’ve already joined the effort to start an impeachment inquiry into Secretary Kristi Noem. The measure this week gives her more money, which is not needed, without adding policy riders for accountability, which is sorely needed. Those policy riders should include banning masks and warrantless street grabs and focusing operations on criminals and border security rather than dragnets.

I oppose a blank check to a broken agency.

Here’s what I’m for: reforming and retraining ICE so that this instrument of fear is hammered back into an arm of the law. To explain further, below I excerpt from a memo by Searchlight Institute. Searchlight is a think-tank aligned with Majority Democrats, a group of elected leaders who seek to define and win the new center of American politics.

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From: Blas Nuñez-Neto, a former border and immigration official who is now a senior policy fellow at Searchlight

Subj: Say What You Mean: Reform and Retrain ICE, Don’t Abolish It

[The Trump Administration is] channeling Orwell by telling the American people to ignore the evidence of their eyes and ears, even as they exclude state law enforcement from the FBI’s review of the [Renee Good shooting].

…But let’s be clear that advocating for abolishing ICE is tantamount to advocating for stopping enforcement of all of our immigration laws in the interior of the United States—a policy position that is both wrong on the merits and at odds with the American public on the issue. Instead, Democrats should embrace an aggressive plan to rebuild ICE based on two concepts: Reform and Retrain.

…the Trump Administration sidestepped Congress and instead weaponized immigration enforcement, pushing ICE and CBP to take actions that are at odds with the rule of law—including refusing to identify themselves or their agencies in public and wearing masks, lying to judges about use of force, and routinely violating court orders. In doing so, they are setting a trap for Democrats. Responding to this kind of lawlessness by saying you want to “Abolish ICE” is exchanging one kind of lawlessness for another. It means that you support getting rid of the agency responsible for enforcing immigration and customs laws, creating a lawless system where people who enter the country illegally can stay here indefinitely.

…Unless you truly believe that the United States should not have an agency that enforces immigration and customs laws within our borders, and you want to increase illegal immigration, you should not say you want to abolish ICE.

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The Plan: Reform and Retrain

Democrats have to offer a proactive vision that shows we are serious about enforcing our immigration laws and directly addresses the cruelty and lawlessness of the Trump Administration’s policies.

…We can have a debate about whether we need to replace ICE with a new agency that has this mission, or provide meaningful reforms that rebuild the public’s fractured trust in ICE’s ability to discharge its mandate safely and effectively—but we should not fall for the trap Trump has set by advocating for wholesale abolition.

An aggressive plan can be summed up in two words: Reform and Retrain.

Reform ICE root and branch, including:

• We are a nation of laws. We need to enforce our interior immigration laws in a way that adheres to the constitutional right to due process.

• No masks. If you are enforcing lawful orders, there is no justification for hiding your name, your face, or your agency affiliation.

• No one is above the law. There must be stiff consequences, including dismissal and prison time, for officers who break the law.

• No indiscriminate enforcement. ICE needs to focus its limited resources on criminals and people who pose a threat to our communities, not landscapers and nurses.

• Outside oversight. We need a bipartisan group of law enforcement professionals to be charged with overseeing and reviewing ICE use of force policies, training, and incidents. And we need to provide justice and compensation for victims identified by this bipartisan group.

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Retrain. ICE needs to become a modern, accountable, and professional law enforcement organization, including:

• Use of Force Policies. ICE officers need to undergo rigorous—and recurring—training that adheres to law enforcement best practices on how and when to use force.

• Community policing practices. ICE should be trained on, and adhere to, the best practices identified by state and local police forces when interacting with the public.

• Identify and weed out the bad apples. Rescind Trump Administration policies that have significantly relaxed vetting and standards for new employees, and ensure that all personnel undergo recurring vetting to ensure they meet the highest standards for professionalism.

• Rightsize ICE. Refocus the agency on its core mission and ensure that remaining One Big Beautiful Bill Act funding is spent on core law enforcement functions, not immigration theater.

Read the full memo here.