Abolish ICE: A Non-Reformist Path Toward Humane Immigration Enforcement

It’s time for the United States to abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). This isn’t a partisan slogan, it’s a moral and structural demand rooted in democratic accountability, racial justice, and human rights. ICE was created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks under the Department of Homeland Security, sending a clear message from the start: immigration enforcement policies would be viewed through a National Security lens. Abolition is not only dismantling a single agency, it’s a starting point to reimagine immigration enforcement that is grounded in humanity, dignity, and equity.  

I want to make this clear: while Republicans such as President Donald Trump have flamed dehumanizing, racist, and xenophobic rhetoric to justify ICE funding and deportation efforts. It has also been Democrats who have funded this agency and various Democrat led Presidential Administrations have overseen those same operations. In other words, there has been a consensus to maintain and legitimize the same corporate machinery of mass detention and deportation that continues the punishment of migration, despite the illusion of differences in rhetoric.  

The abolition of ICE is a non-reformist reform which is a necessary first step towards de-linking criminalization and immigration, which signals a political shift in our national ethos that privileges people over corporate power. This isn’t just merely adjusting the federal government’s systems but to challenge their underlying logic. Instead of incremental approaches that trim around the edges, non-reformist reforms clear the way to dismantle oppressive institutions and redistribute those powers for a deeper systemic transformation. 

ICE as a Vehicle of Harm

ICE’s conduct and operations are rooted in structural violence. ICE has amassed a laundry list of abuses, including deportations without due process, workplace raids, sexual assault, medical neglect, forced hysterectomies, and even deaths under ICE custody. These practices perpetually target Brown, Black, Indigenous, and low-income undocumented migrants, often viewing migration through criminality than a civil offense or a humanitarian reality. The attempts to “reform” ICE in wanting to improve oversight, increase training, or limit practices - continues to fall flat as an empty gesture and it doesn’t address this fundamental issue: ICE's continued existence has been predicated on punishing and criminalizing migration, making true reform impossible without getting rid of the agency entirely. 

Toward Humane Immigration Enforcement

Abolishing ICE can help form a humane immigration enforcement. Rather than having the current version of criminalizing migration, it should be treated as a civil matter that doesn’t default into policing, dehumanization, and cruelty. Abolition does not mean to get rid of all immigration related responsibilities. It means redistributing essential functions in ways that ensure dignity, accountability, and transparency:

• Cases involving individuals with serious criminal convictions: can be reviewed by the Department of Justice or reassigned to a newly created agency, that is narrowly focused on oversight, due process protections, and no mandate for mass enforcement. This ensures accountability without relying on ICE’s current abusive tactics.

• Remaining administrative roles: such as immigration check-ins, legal compliance, and case support should be transferred to a non-policing, service-based immigration agency that will focus on restorative justice and community support over punishment.

Conclusion

The movement to abolish ICE is not reactionary, it is visionary. It challenges a system of punitive and racialized foundations of immigration enforcement and insists that a new world is possible. This will be a starting point to have a immigration system that will have the following components: justice, compassion, and solidarity. The question isn’t whether we can afford to get rid of ICE - it is how can we not afford to Abolish ICE!