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Rep. Delia Ramirez<\/span> is expected to introduce a bill to abolish the Department of Homeland Security and eliminate all immigrant detention in the United States on Tuesday, the Illinois Democrat shared exclusively with The Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Reimagining Safety Act would repeal \u201cduplicative and overreaching terrorism laws,\u201d according to the bill summary and text, and curtail the widespread surveillance state<\/a> that emerged in the wake of 9\/11 terror attacks.<\/p>\n It comes the day after agents from Homeland Security Investigations searched the home<\/a> of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., in what the Department of Justice has described as an opaque<\/a> \u201cfederal criminal investigation.\u201d HSI is a component of<\/a> Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the agency at the center of mounting concerns about the violent weaponization<\/a> of DHS against immigrants and the Trump administration\u2019s perceived political enemies<\/a>.<\/p>\n The sweeping legislation faces long odds in Congress, but Ramirez argues that strictly limiting the government\u2019s immigration enforcement apparatus is critical for public safety in the wake of yet another shooting by federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n Last Thursday, an ICE agent shot<\/a> 28-year-old Oscar Belgal in the neck by firing into his car, where Belgal\u2019s 5-year-old child was in the backseat<\/a>, in New York City.\u00a0Belgal was the latest of\u00a0at least 25 people\u00a0shot by federal immigration agents<\/a> in the past year; six of those shootings were fatal<\/a>. Deaths in detention are also surging<\/a> under Trump. As of early October,\u00a0at least 28 people\u00a0have reportedly died in ICE custody<\/a> this year, according to the National Immigration Project.<\/p>\n \u201cJust 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,\u201d wrote Ramirez in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ramirez\u2019s bill seeks to replace DHS with a new agency called the Department of Community Safety, which would oversee the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The new department would also fund new public safety measures like providing support to community violence intervention programs and public health-backed approaches to gun violence. And it would implement a new program where social workers, medical professionals, and interpreters aid asylum-seekers who arrive at the border.<\/p>\n Other DHS functions would be transferred to existing agencies. The DOJ would take over immigration enforcement authority; the Department of Transportation would assume the functions of the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard; and the Department of the Treasury would conduct customs enforcement.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security has only existed<\/a> since George W. Bush established it in 2003<\/a>, ushering in a new era of broad federal surveillance<\/a> and policing powers that the new legislation now seeks to roll back.<\/p>\n For example, the bill would prevent the federal government from placing people on the \u201cno-fly list\u201d without a criminal conviction or warrant. Civil liberties advocates have frequently criticized<\/a> the database that restricts people<\/a> from air travel, arguing it\u2019s arbitrary, secretive, and racially biased<\/a>.<\/p>\n The legislation would also terminate the ability of the secretary of state to declare \u201cforeign terrorist\u201d organizations, arguing that the arbitrary list<\/a> has been weaponized against protesters and civil liberties groups.<\/p>\n In 2025, Trump\u2019s State Department attempted to revoke the visas of several students who had protested or spoken out<\/a> against Palestine under the guise that their support for Palestinians amounted<\/a> to \u201cmaterial support\u201d for Hamas, making them immediately deportable.\u00a0The Treasury Department, meanwhile, in August sanctioned Palestine Action,<\/a> a U.K.-based group that opposes Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza,\u00a0as a foreign terrorist\u00a0organization, allowing the federal government to freeze all the group\u2019s U.S. assets, impose travel restrictions, and ban U.S. companies from conducting business with the organization.<\/p>\n The raid on Omar\u2019s home, Ramirez said, is just the latest example to underscore how the Trump administration has weaponized DHS in particular. President Donald Trump and his allies have routinely and without evidence accused<\/a> Omar, who became a U.S. citizen in 2000, of immigration fraud and threatened to deport her back to Somalia.<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> to The Intercept, Omar spokesperson Jackie Rogers called the raid \u201can outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n Ramirez said the search was an example of DHS \u201cacting as designed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDHS has been utilized by the government to target and persecute those they consider the public enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cDHS is not rogue,\u201d wrote the congresswoman. \u201cFor 23 years, since its inception, DHS has been utilized by the government to target and persecute those they consider the public enemy \u2014 whether it is Muslim-Americans<\/a>, Haitians escaping violence, Latinos yearning for a better life, or dissenting voices demanding an end to the genocide in Palestine and the kidnapping of our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n