Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Illinois) has introduced a bill that would abolish not just ICE, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) altogether, repealing the 2002 law establishing the agency and replacing it with one focused on protecting civil and human rights.
The wide-ranging legislation, dubbed the Reimagining Safety Act, would repeal the Homeland Security Act. Signed by President George W. Bush as part of his administration’s post-9/11 “war on terror,” the transformational bill created DHS and led to the establishment of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The bill would abolish DHS, CBP, and ICE — going further than the progressive call to abolish ICE. Other offices currently housed within the department, like Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the customs functions of CBP would be broken off into different authorities.
“We know that DHS was intentionally established with an overbroad mission and unchecked power. The last two years have made it visible what so many communities have actually been saying for decades: That DHS, frankly, is the single greatest threat to our public safety today,” Ramirez said in a press conference previewing the legislation last month. “We must strip away every single tool they are using to terrorize us.”
In DHS’s place, Ramirez’s bill would create a cabinet-level “Department of Community Safety,” which would address community concerns ranging from gun violence to disaster relief, using a public health-based approach. All immigration detention centers would be shuttered.
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Everyone knows this won’t go anywhere. Democrats in DC are masters of the useless symbolic gesture.
Doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell, but glad to see it anyways.
It’s important to get this conversation in front of voters now so they can go full speed with it next year after winning both houses of congress
Even then, mainstream dems do not support this.
The mainstream Dems as a block are rather liquid, a lot of them would fall in line if the winds blow hard enough. The problem is true asswipes like Schumer.
Judging by the usual Lemmy response, we’ll end up blaming Democrats.
Are people ‘blaming’ democrats or pointing out that until this point the vast majority have been perfectly happy continuing to have a paramilitary organization that didn’t exist prior to 2003 in charge of enforcement of a misdemeanor violation? Just so we’re all on the same page.
That’s a gross simplification, if you look at the budget and administration alone you can see two very different approaches. But you probably won’t do that so I can’t be bothered to engage any further.
Dang, it’s convenient you don’t have to present any evidence before declaring me wrong. Maybe someone else can list what legislative sessions had a majority of Democrats trying to eliminate ICE before last year. Because frankly I’m not impressed by “we only gave the Gestapo 85% of last year’s budget”.
It’s pretty great to be a democrat I guess.
You can do nothing and just be entitled to voted because the other party is so bad, right?
People have been laying out great cases on why the democratic party is beholden to the same donors and has not, and will not bring about any meaningful change. (Unless the leadership is completely changed and DSA candidates get in). The problem with their party are the neoliberals. They are not left wing, they are right wing. They will always side with business. They will NEVER give workers anything.
There are social Democrats, democratic socialists, and other progressives that need to be their own party
I wouldn’t have agreed a couple years ago but ICE has proven that are not going to follow any domestic or international laws and are executing people in the street and there aren’t any whistleblowers, internal fights/struggles, etc. They have been gutted and couped.
It’s good to see Democrats that are actually going in the right direction
We need to end the Patriot Act. That is the conversation that needs to be made. That would encompass all of this.
Citizens United too. Both of those gotta go at the very least, though I still think we need to start over entirely. Balkanize or not, new constitution.
Be careful what you wish for. You might ask for a new constitution, but what if it’s worse? This one at least tries to guarantee us certain rights, even if somewhat toothlessly.
But the reality is things could be so much worse than they are. They are bad, of course, and it’s not my intention to minimize that. But the sole reason things aren’t already worse than they are is because of those pesky constitutional safeguards putting roadblocks between the current administration and its agenda.
So let’s not lose sight of what we do have, nor throw the baby out with the bathwater.
A constitutional convention might be overdue, but I’m reluctant to start that conversation until we get rid of the fascist trifecta.
I doubt it’ll pass, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
While I’m super in favor of the sentiment of this the word “abolish” is such a terrible comms approach.
We will still need border protection and airport security, question is how should this work not let’s just burn it all down. I know this proposal has replacement ideas which is great but saying abolish and letting this be a headline just plays into the hands of the idiots who won’t think past the headline.
It worked better before these orgs were created. they’re entirely superfluous when not harmful
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Can we add “abolish conservatism” to the bill? If not, this shit will all come right back. As long as conservatives (incl. neoliberals) exist, oppression will exist.
While we can be wishful, conservatives will always exist, and it would be better to prevent them from doing more damage.
It would, however require constitutional amendments that would essentially neuter the Unitary Theory of the Executive.
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In my head, it would give each branch of government it’s own physical law enforcement.
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And money generated or excess received by the branches must still be appropriated by Congress without exception.
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the electoral college should be ended and ranked choice become required.
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Undo citizens united
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Do something to get people with actual brains running for office. No idea how to do this one though.
To the last, important to start by defining “brains” and maybe more important is starting with empathy.
Need to tie their time in office to measurable goals related to quality of life for the people who actually need help in the country. Miss those milestones and you are unable to run for reelection. Maybe also something akin to the honorable or dishonorable discharge in the military. Something that does you, good or bad.
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You make a bill that hopeful and specifically save the TSA?
Truly landmarkish
Yeah it’s easy Delia, all you have to do is push forward bills that sound nice and have no chance of passing, after that, you can afford to burn away some of that good will on some votes against the people.
We will shift this responsibility to a different Democrat as needed so you can still keep your seat going forward.
Dont forget we have dinner with our friends from across the aisle every Thursday where we laugh at our constituents together.
You cry “Why don’t they do anything?” and when they do something you cry “Why do they do useless things?”. Good job. 👍👍👍
