We have seen widespread public anger with ICE in the wake of the public murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by DHS officers in Minneapolis in January. Half of people polled this month now support abolishing ICE, with only 39% opposed (10% undecided). Democrats in Congress responded to public anger at ICE by withholding funding for the Department of Homeland Security until the administration agrees to implement cosmetic reforms to the agency’s procedures. Arguably this defused public outrage with ICE at a critical moment and deflected momentum towards actually abolishing the agency. This is consistent with the national Democratic Party’s steadfast support for ICE and Border Patrol, funding both agencies with billions of dollars, including during periods of unified Democratic control of the White House and Congress.

But let’s talk about abolishing ICE. A common argument for abolishing ICE is that the agency didn’t exist prior to 2003, so we could resolve most of the problems with ICE by simply turning the clock back to before the Department of Homeland Security was established. But abolishing ICE must mean more than cosmetic reforms and a new name. There is no fair or moral way to deport people since being subject to deportation is nearly always outside of a person's control. We have no choice over where we are born or who our parents are, and most people who need to move to survive did not choose to leave their homes.

Yet country of citizenship is a critical determinant of life opportunities, for individuals and communities. Assigning opportunity, safety, and liberty based on a factor no one can control is unjust. This is why freedom of movement must be a human right and there is no moral justification for deportation.

The true reasons for deportation policies are racism and other forms of bigotry. The Immigration Act of 1924 which created the framework for immigration laws today was created by eugenicists for explicitly eugenicist purposes. That purpose has not changed in 2026.

History shows us that any government deportation agency will violate human rights, regardless of which political party is in charge. Some examples in the U.S. include:

• 1882-1943: Chinese Exclusion Act bans Chinese people from immigrating or becoming citizens based on their race.
• 1942-46: INS & other federal agencies incarcerate people of Japanese descent in camps, deporting many.
• 1954-55: INS deports hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent in Operation W****** including US citizens.
• 1994: INS implements Operation Gatekeeper to drive migrants into the desert to die.
• 1997: a Marine patrolling the border in Texas shoots & kills 18 year old US citizen Esequiel Hernandez Jr.
• 2002: INS implements NSEERS program to detain & deport Muslim immigrants
• 2010: Border Patrol agents beat Anastasio Hernandez Rojas to death, with DOJ clearing all agents involved in 2015.
• 2014: In response to kids & families migrating, DHS begins policies including metering (restricting access to asylum at the border), increasing fear interview denial rates, presumptive detention instead of parole, family detention, & in some cases family separation.
• 2021: Border Patrol agents attack Haitian migrants at the border, no agents involved are fired & one is awarded in 2024.
• 2023-24: Biden closes the border to most asylum-seekers.

Immigration restrictions are by design and effect racist, and there is no valid moral justification for deportation. 150 years of US history, under both Democrats and Republicans, have demonstrated there is no way to implement deportation policies without violating human rights. “Immigration enforcement” is just a euphemism for deportation. We have not yet heard a plausible theory of how to do “immigration enforcement” without deporting people.

As a practical matter, you cannot deport people trying to survive, or prevent them from entering the country, without imprisoning them under the threat of violence. There is no “humane” way to deport or exclude someone seeking survival for themselves or loved ones.

ICE and Border Patrol cannot be reformed because their purpose and function is reprehensible and morally illegitimate. When we say #AbolishICE, we mean all deportation and detention must be ended. ICE and Border Patrol must be abolished not just in form but in function. This is why we do not support the cosmetic and ineffective reforms proposed by the Democrats, since not only will these reforms not be implemented, but they actually serve to protect ICE from increasing public support for abolishing the agency entirely.