By Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., plans to introduce legislation abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and replacing the Department of Homeland Security, according to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin. The Chicago congresswoman is expected to announce the proposal Wednesday morning, expanding her effort to dismantle the federal government’s immigration enforcement structure.
According to Melugin’s report, the Reimagining Safety Act would repeal DHS’s underlying statutory authorities and redirect department funding toward programs for working families. A replacement department would follow a “human- and community-centered” approach to “collective safety.” The description provided ahead of the announcement leaves unresolved how the government would distribute the department’s existing responsibilities.
NEW: Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who has said she is a “proud anchor baby”, will hold a press conference in Chicago tomorrow morning to introduce legislation that would “dismantle DHS” & “abolish ICE”.
Ramirez says her “Reimagining Safety Act” would “repeal the authorities that…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 22, 2026
Ramirez outlined her broader intentions in a June interview with Nextgov/FCW, arguing that the Trump administration’s immigration agenda had consumed resources needed by other homeland security agencies. She proposed moving components such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Transportation Security Administration, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Coast Guard into more independent structures that she said would be less vulnerable to political interference and funding cuts.
That approach would extend a campaign Ramirez has already pursued through legislation targeting immigration detention. In January, she and Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., introduced the Melt ICE Act, which would remove immigration detention authorities, terminate existing detention contracts within two years and prohibit new contracts. The measure would also require DHS to develop a plan to remove immigrants from ankle monitors and redirect ICE funding to community organizations providing services such as housing and health care.
Support for that earlier legislation has lagged behind public demands to abolish the agency. In a July announcement, Ramirez’s office said more than 50 members of Congress had called for abolishing, dismantling or melting ICE, but only 13 had joined her bill. That gap illustrates the difference between endorsing the slogan and backing legislation to eliminate detention authorities.
Ramirez, who represents Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District, is the leading Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee’s cybersecurity panel. She has presented immigration policy as a personal issue, describing herself as the “proud, defiant daughter” of Maria Elvira Ramirez Guerra, a Guatemalan immigrant who crossed the border while pregnant with her.
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