WASHINGTON — A left-wing House Democrat wants to outright abolish the Department of Homeland Security following Monday’s dawn raid on “Squad” Rep. Ilhan Omar’s DC home.
Rep. Delia Ramirez’s “Reimagining Safety Act” would also stop all immigration detentions in the US following last week’s shooting of Oscar Belgal by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Bronx.
“Just this week, our communities were reminded that DHS is a weapon: pointed at a father shot in front of his 5-year-old and at Congresswoman Omar, who is using her voice to demand an end to fascism,” Ramirez (D-Ill.) told the Intercept in a statement.
“It is clear that now is the time to reimagine our safety, dismantle DHS, abolish ICE, and end the use of broad authorities to circumvent our rights and due process.”
DHS was established after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as part of a series of sweeping reforms aimed at making it easier to gather and share intelligence while streamlining Uncle Sam’s domestic security operations.
Throughout the 2026 midterm election cycle, Democrats in primaries across the country have called for abolishing ICE in response to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement operations.
On Monday, agents from DHS’ Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agency carried out a raid on Omar’s home in DC as part of a years-long criminal probe into the Somalia-born congresswoman’s immigration paperwork.
Federal agents presented evidence to a DC court to obtain a search warrant for the sitting congresswoman’s home, border czar Tom Homan told Fox News Monday, adding that a federal judge had signed off on the canvas.
Omar has claimed that she is the victim of a politicized weaponization of the justice system. Republicans have long raised questions about her immigration history and husband’s net worth.
The Reimagining Safety Act would replace DHS with a newly rebranded Department of Community Safety to fund violence intervention initiatives and other public safety measures, according to The Intercept.
Some DHS duties will be delegated to other departments and agencies, with the Justice Department taking over immigration enforcement, the Treasury Department handling customs enforcement, and the Department of Transportation managing the Coast Guard. It would also limit the ability of the Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist groups.
“DHS is not rogue,” Ramirez added. “For 23 years, since its inception, DHS has been utilized by the government to target and persecute those they consider the public enemy — whether it is Muslim-Americans, Haitians escaping violence, Latinos yearning for a better life, or dissenting voices.”
Ramirez’s bill is a longshot to get through the House and Senate, both of which are on recess until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
