Abolish ICE and Establish a Humane Immigration Enforcement System

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-296) and began operations on March 1, 2003, taking on the enforcement functions of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 2025, 32 people died in ICE custody, the highest annual total since 2004 (NPR, 2026). A 2024 review of 52 ICE custody deaths from 2017 to 2021 by the ACLU, Physicians for Human Rights, and American Oversight found that 95 percent were preventable or possibly preventable with adequate medical care, and that medical staff made incorrect or incomplete diagnoses in 88 percent of cases. The fiscal year 2026 DHS budget funds 50,000 detention beds, with $45 billion in additional reconciliation appropriations designated for expansion to 100,000–116,000 beds (CRS R48704; American Immigration Council, 2025).

What ICE does

ICE is a directorate of the Department of Homeland Security with three principal components: Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). ERO administers civil immigration arrests, custody transfers, and removals. HSI conducts criminal investigations into transnational organized crime, customs fraud, child exploitation, and human trafficking. OPLA represents the government in immigration court. Civil enforcement and criminal investigation operate under a single chain of command within ICE.

Approximately 90 percent of people in ICE custody are held in facilities operated by private contractors, principally GEO Group and CoreCivic (Migration Policy Institute; ACLU, 2024). DHS Office of Inspector General report OIG-24-59 documented persistent deficiencies in medical care, sanitation, and emergency response across unannounced inspections of multiple facilities. In December 2025, ICE and Customs and Border Protection launched Operation Metro Surge in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, deploying more than 3,000 officers and recording more than 4,000 arrests over two months. During the operation, federal agents fatally shot Renée Nicole Good on January 7, 2026 (ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner) and Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen and Department of Veterans Affairs nurse, on January 24, 2026.

The statute

The bill is a successor to H.R. 6361, the Establishing a Humane Immigration Enforcement System Act, introduced in the 115th Congress on July 12, 2018 by Representatives Pocan, Jayapal, and Espaillat. It terminates ICE within one year of enactment and convenes a commission to recommend the transfer of its statutory functions. The reintroduced bill contains the following provisions:

• Repeals 6 U.S.C. § 252 and abolishes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement one year after enactment.
• Convenes a Humane Immigration Enforcement Commission to draft a transfer plan, with the plan taking effect by default if Congress does not enact superseding legislation within the transition window.
• Transfers Homeland Security Investigations to the Department of Justice as a separate component, retaining its authority over transnational organized crime, customs fraud, child exploitation, and forced-labor cases.
• Transfers civil immigration enforcement to a new Bureau of Immigration Adjudication and Compliance, structurally separated from criminal enforcement and prohibited from contracting custodial detention to for-profit operators.
• Codifies binding detention standards: minimum medical staffing ratios, mandatory hospital-transfer protocols for life-threatening conditions, public reporting of every in-custody death within 72 hours, and fiscal penalties for noncompliant facilities.
• Restricts use of force consistent with constitutional standards under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, requires body-worn cameras for all field officers, and mandates public release of footage in any fatal-force incident within 48 hours.
• Phases out for-profit immigration detention contracts within 24 months of enactment and prohibits new private contracts after enactment, paralleling Executive Order 14006 of January 26, 2021.
• Authorizes the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division to bring pattern-or-practice actions against successor agencies under 34 U.S.C. § 12601.

Precedent

Section 471 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 abolished the Immigration and Naturalization Service through a parallel mechanism: a single statutory section that dissolved the agency, paired with a reorganization plan that distributed its functions among USCIS, ICE, and CBP. The Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-438) abolished the Atomic Energy Commission and split its regulatory and operational functions between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Research and Development Administration.

Deaths in ICE custody rose from 11 in 2024 to 32 in 2025 (NPR; American Immigration Council). The 2024 ACLU/PHR/American Oversight review of 52 deaths from 2017 to 2021 found that medical staff made incorrect or incomplete diagnoses in 88 percent of examined cases. Federal pattern-or-practice consent decrees governing local police departments, including Newark, Cleveland, and Baltimore, were associated with reductions in officer-involved shootings and use-of-force complaints in subsequent compliance reporting (Department of Justice Civil Rights Division reports, 2018–2024).

First 100 days

Day one. The President issues an executive order directing the Secretary of Homeland Security to suspend all new private detention contracts, halt facility expansions funded under the FY 2025 reconciliation appropriation, and submit a wind-down schedule for existing private contracts within 30 days.

Day thirty. The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice transmit a joint reorganization plan to Congress identifying the statutory authorities to be transferred, the successor agencies, and the wind-down timeline. The DHS Office of Inspector General opens an audit of every in-custody death since January 2025, with public reporting required within 180 days.

Day ninety. The President signs the successor to H.R. 6361 into law. The Humane Immigration Enforcement Commission is convened with members appointed by the President, the Speaker of the House, and the Senate Majority Leader. The 12-month termination period runs from the date of enactment.

Effect of the reform

One year after enactment, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ceases to exist as a federal agency. Civil immigration enforcement is administered by a structurally separate bureau bound by codified detention standards, mandatory medical-transfer protocols, and statutory limits on use of force. Criminal investigations historically conducted by Homeland Security Investigations continue under Department of Justice authority. For-profit immigration detention is phased out within 24 months of enactment, and new private contracts are prohibited from the date of signing.