You Can’t Reform a Police State: Defund DHS and ICE Now
Why Democratic “Guardrails” for DHS and ICE Are Moral Theater, Not Accountability
By David Shuster
One of the most enduring superstitions in American politics is the belief that a bad institution can be made virtuous by scolding it sternly, announcing symbolic restrictions, and then increasing its allowance. This view, while touching in its innocence, is now on full display in the Democratic Congressional leaders’ attempt to reform the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.
The theory goes like this: DHS and ICE have become lawless, brutal, and contemptuous of constitutional norms—but if Congress just insists loudly enough on “new guardrails,” the agencies will suddenly develop consciences.
One imagines a group of federal agents, already accustomed to masked raids, warrantless entries, and bureaucratic indifference to human suffering, pausing mid-operation to say, “Hold on, fellow proud boys, uh DHS squads… the appropriations language demands better vibes.”
In the current DHS funding dispute, democrats have pushed for a list of reforms as conditions for voting to keep DHS open. The Democrats, in a demand letter to congressional Republicans, are proposing body cameras and agent-identification requirements including the elimination of agent face masks and a prohibition on military-style uniforms.
Democrats also want restrictions on where agents can go and operate, plus promises that DHS will cooperate with state and local law enforcement investigations into federal agents who use unlawful force.
So, if an ICE agent shoots a protestor in the face and kills that person, federal agents may not destroy the evidence and flee the crime scene. Kristi Noem, do you pinky promise?
Many of these provisions already exist in federal law. And other requests are toothless. The body camera proposal, for example, is especially rich.
Under that proposal, agents must be issued cameras but are under no binding obligation to turn them on, keep them on, or face meaningful consequences when the footage disappears. Also, being on camera didn’t stop federal agents from shooting and killing Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Still, this is reform in the modern political public relations sense: a press release dressed up as a safeguard. The camera exists not to actually stop or restrain abuse, but to reassure Democratic donors and grass roots activists that with Democratic congressional leaders, Something Is Being Done.
Meanwhile the more fundamental and foundational rot at DHS is going unmentioned.
DHS was designed, in a panic, after the 9-11 terror attacks. It was an agency birthed by fear, imbued with haste, and pumped full of enthusiasm for authority.
Under the Trump administration, the latent DHS authoritarianism has simply been encouraged to stretch its legs. ICE in particular now operates less as a law-enforcement agency and more like uniformed fascist thugs, accountable primarily to themselves, Stephen Miller, and a right-wing fantasy world that treats cruelty as proof of seriousness.
Democrats loudly object to this situation, as they should. And yet, before any talks began with congressional Republicans, Democratic leaders had already whittled down demands and lowered the temperature.
Initially, Democrats pledged to Defund ICE. Period. In the latest YouGov polling, voters approve defunding ICE and DHS by a margin of 47% to 41%. But as soon as Republican Senate leader Thune said “let’s talk,” Democrats torpedoed the defunding rhetoric. What about defunding just ICE? The latest YouGov poll found 58% of Americans disapprove of ICE. But Democrats, in their first demand letter sent to GOP leaders, dropped any mention of eliminating ICE and instead wrote about “reform.”
So, while Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries publicly fret about the Trump administration breaking law enforcement norms, the Democrats have already begun to backtrack and signal it won’t take much to keep DHS and ICE going. Democrats have even dropped their demand that Trump fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
This is not courage; it is moral bookkeeping. It allows the Democratic lawmakers to register DHS disapproval and soothe the progressive base while not offending conservative voters. It also ensures that the deportation trains keep running on time.
The plain truth—unfashionable but stubborn—is that DHS and ICE are not malfunctioning. They are functioning exactly as the Trump White House wants. These agencies are brutalizing migrant workers and citizens alike, terrifying Democratic communities, and putting people with black and brown skin on notice that they are not wanted in Trump’s America.
The only possible disappointment for Trump and his goons might be that the protesters’ responses have been peaceful.
Instead of breaking glass and burning buildings – actions that would undoubtedly trigger a Trump military response faster than you can say “martial law” or “insurrection act,” Minnesotans are marching, singing, and blowing whistles. There have been no riots.
If the protesters in sub-zero temperatures can meet federal abuse with fortitude, discipline, and peaceful protest, surely Democratic leaders in Congress can show some political courage. If Democrats genuinely believe, as they should, that DHS and ICE are lawless, abusive, and corrosive, then the remedy is obvious and unpleasant: defund them. Starve the agencies. Break them apart. Separate disaster relief and aviation security from immigration enforcement. And stop going along with the absurd notion that every federal function must be housed under one militarized Trump agency roof.
If Democrats are ever going to produce meaningful change, we should be willing to take real, structural action and not settle for symbolic reforms. This isn’t a time for Democratic Party modesty and pragmatism. People are being rounded up and disappeared. Protesters have been shot and killed. And DHS still refuses to fully cooperate with local Minneapolis prosecutors.
Defunding is not radical. It is the only language Donald Trump and his republican enablers in Congress will understand. Everything else is sermonizing—cheap, shallow, and utterly ineffective
Politically and morally, Democrats must be bold and strong. It’s not enough to express shock at Trump’s DHS, request technology changes, and ask federal agents to be more respectful of the constitution.
It’s time for Democrats to defund DHS’s enforcement arm and start over with new agencies and institutions that respect both the law and human rights.
Enough already.
ICE is not redeemable. It is evil from the leaders to the agents. Shut it down.
It is fantasy to believe you can reform a brutal, lawless, paramilitary organization whose mandate is to oppress the public and serve the dictatorial whims of the administration. DHS, CBP and ICE need to be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up. Dems in Congress who think otherwise are either completely out of touch with public sentiment or intentionally collaborating with the regime for personal reasons.