Delia Ramirez

09/23/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/23/2026 15:22

Ramirez, Civil Society, & Community Leaders Announce Community-led Legislation to Dismantle DHS, Abolish ICE, Reimagine Community Safety

Chicago, IL - Today, Congresswoman Delia C. Ramirez (IL-03), Ranking Member of a Committee on Homeland Security Subcommittee, stood with Illinois public officials, civil society, and community members to announce the Reimagining Safety Act. The landmark community-led legislation would create a new human- and community-centered federal department that promotes collective safety, repeal the authorities that give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) its power, and redirect DHS funds to programs that working families rely on.

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The Reimagining Safety Act is a first-of-its-kind bill that would dismantle DHS. It is the first time a community has designed a cabinet-level department. The Reimagining Safety Act would:

  1. Establish the Department of Community Safety
  2. Dismantle DHS, preserving CISA, FEMA, TSA, and Customs functions
  3. Abolish ICE and CBP
  4. Reinvest funds in our communities
  5. Limit government surveillance, rein in unlawful abuses of data, and curb militarized enforcement
  6. Begin the process of establishing a separate civil immigration system

"Today, I am proud to announce the Reimagining Safety Act, a community-led roadmap to establish the Department of Community Safety, dismantle DHS, abolish ICE and CBP, and reinvest resources in our communities," said Congresswoman Ramirez. "The Department of Homeland Security was founded out of a profound national trauma. But we cannot add new pains to old ones. We must heal old pain and create new opportunities."

For more than a year, the communities that Congresswoman Ramirez represents have been targeted, terrorized, and attacked by DHS through its unlawful mass deportation campaign. Those same communities worked to build the Reimagining Safety Act while protecting their neighbors through Know Your Rights campaigns, observer networks, whistles and cell phones, human school buses, and more.

"Building something new, creating in a time of destruction, is a revolutionary act. It is proof of our hope and belief in what is possible even in dark times," added Ramirez. "The people have the power to reshape our government and to reimagine how we cultivate safety and collective well-being."

During the announcement, local and national organizations, public officials and community leaders shared the importance of the legislation, highlighted the urgency of the moment, and explained how critical the policy development process was to ensure those closest to the problems are also closest to the solutions.

"Who is this government actually keeping safe? You cannot militarize our neighborhoods, surveil our families, and make people afraid to leave their homes and call that safety. And we cannot separate any of this from the bigger agenda we are witnessing: an agenda that has disproportionately targeted Latino, immigrant, Black and Brown communities, treating the color of our skin, the language we speak, and where we come from as reasons to target us and treat us as if we are less human," said state IL Representative Norma Hernandez. "The Reimagining Safety Act gives us the opportunity not just to dismantle what has harmed our communities, but to put our vision for something better on paper, one that is rooted in human dignity."

"ICE today is more than agents at the door. It is an infrastructure of surveillance: government databases, data brokers, technology, and information collected for one purpose and weaponized for another," said IL State Senator Graciela Guzman. "And that is why we are here today, as Congresswoman Ramirez is stepping up to transform what exists on the other side of a federal system with extraordinary power that right now surveils, detains, and separates families and instead reimagines our collective safety via what we know is good government, providing for our people. Our communities have stepped up for each other. Their government must do the same."

"For over a year, our Northwest Side Rapid Responders and I have been on the ground responding to ICE agents terrorizing our city. We have witnessed the devastation of parents stolen, elders brutalized, and children left without their caregivers. Despite this harm, DHS has received an increased budget at the expense of our safety nets of Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP," said Alderperson Jessie Fuentes. "More cuts to our safety nets mean more strain to families barely getting by. We are a community that has always shown solidarity in protecting our neighbors. The Reimagining Community Safety Act is the tool that will keep us safe. Congress must act now."

"What Trump has unleashed on Illinois, Minnesota, Texas, and elsewhere with ICE and CBP is only a symptom of the ever-increasing power granted to the Department of Homeland Security over the past two decades, " said Lawrence Benito, Executive Director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "The proposal announced by Representative Ramirez today shows what is possible when we work together to create something new: we can reimagine collective safety, lift up our communities, and affirm the humanity of all people. This policy is not about tearing something down for the sake of it - this is an opportunity to invest in the things that matter most to all communities, and not continue pouring resources into an agency determined only to separate our families."

"In the past, the type of policy we are fighting for would have been written off as outlandish, too 'extreme,' or simply put, impossible. But today, having lived a decade under unprecedented headline after unprecedented headline, I have seen this administration make the most impossible nightmares, possible. And in the most distorted way, it has strengthened my resolve that if the worst can be possible, we can also dare to dream and to believe that the best can be possible TOO because THAT's what our communities deserve and it's on all of us to make THAT our reality," said Viviana Baraja, Immigration Justice Director at Palenque LSNA.

"As an undocumented person who has lived in the United States for over 26 years, I want to thank Congresswoman Delia Ramirez for creating, in my experience, the first space led by an elected official to truly reimagine safety through a liberatory lens," said Antonio Gutierrez, Strategic Coordinator at Organized Communities Against Deportations. "This process has been liberating for me, and for the many constituents I represent through our organization. If we are serious about moving beyond "Abolish ICE" as a slogan, the Reimagining Safety Act is an important first step toward building a future where ICE is no longer needed. Today, we are collectively drafting a more just future-and history will remember this moment."

"Through our work with ICIRR, including with Congresswoman Ramirez, JCUA has helped make Illinois one of the most welcoming states in the nation for immigrants. But we know we must go further. We must dismantle DHS and create a new Department of Community Safety," said Anna Rubin, Executive Director of Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA). "We know that our safety is bound up together, that true safety is a multiracial democracy where everyone has what they need to flourish. That is the department Congresswoman Ramirez's bill creates. That is why JCUA stands proudly behind it."

"Since the creation of DHS, the Muslim community in Chicagoland, and America broadly, has been directly, intensely, and unjustly targeted by the department. DHS' profiling has dissolved any sense of privacy and has sought to silence and remove the Muslim community," said Jordan Esparza-Kelley, Communications Coordinator at CAIR Chicago. "This legislative effort, led by the Congresswoman, was able to call in directly impacted communities, and reimagine safety and national security from a framework of love, care, and tolerance. Legislation such as the Reimagining Safety Act can change and save lives; it can help us truly be who we say we are as a country."

"We've long witnessed DHS agents target and attack working immigrant families across the country. Warehouse workers make up a large portion of the workforce, and had to face perpetual fear for simply going to work," said Marcos Ceniceros, Executive Director of Warehouse Workers for Justice. "This is why it was important to develop this legislation rooted in real experiences and community. I want to thank Congresswoman Delia Ramirez for her leadership and commitment to all immigrant working people."

"ICE kills people and tears families apart. No one is safe when ICE is present, whether in the streets or in one of the agency's more than 200 abuse-ridden detention centers. Since last summer, Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security $240 billion for mass detention and deportation," said Stacy Suh, Program Director of Detention Watch Network. "Thank you, Representative Ramirez, for your leadership and for this bold collective vision. People across the country are demanding no more abuse, no more death at the hands of ICE, and no more ICE funding while people lose healthcare, struggle to pay rent, and kids go hungry."

To watch the full press conference, CLICK HERE.

For photos of the event,CLICK HERE.

Background:

The legislation comes as the last year became DHS's deadliest year in more than two decades, with 58 people dying in ICE custody since January 2025, especially in for-profit private detention centers with limited oversight. For more than a year, IL-03 has been targeted, terrorized, and attacked by DHS with zero accountability. And over the last 23 years of the Department of Homeland Security, the agency has targeted and criminalized communities, militarized enforcement, and expanded the surveillance state.

Congresswoman Ramirez has led the calls for accountability of DHS and its leadership.

Delia Ramirez published this content on September 23, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on September 23, 2026 at 21:22 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]