Abolish Ice. Restore Our Rights.

Another person was killed. Another tale was told by the Department of Homeland Security that painted the victim as the aggressor. And, as with case after case brought during this crackdown, the story began to fall apart as soon as the evidence was reviewed.

Two Americans have been killed by immigration officers, both protestors, neither a threat to the officers or anyone else. Eight others have been shot to death. More than 50 have died while in ICE custody. And at least 79 children have been harmed by tear gas and pepper spray deployed by immigration officers, likely a substantial undercount. Communities have been terrorized. People brutalized. Work sites, private homes, streets, parks, and courthouse halls have been treated like combat zones.

This defies the principles America claims to stand for. The problem is not that the government is enforcing immigration laws. It is that immigration enforcement has become a masked, militarized force that goes anywhere it wants, does whatever it wants to whoever it wants, and then expects the public to blindly accept the story it creates.

Across multiple cities, arrests and prosecutions that portrayed citizens as threats have resulted in no charges, dismissals, reductions, or acquittals. Nationwide, of the first 100 people initially charged with felony assault on federal agents, more than half had their charges reduced or dismissed, and every case that reached a jury ended in acquittal.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE were formed in the aftermath of 9/11, when America was on high alert. The government began seeing terrorists lurking in every shadow, and society willingly handed over its rights to feel more secure.

Once rights are traded away, they are difficult to get back. We see it with surveillance. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was sold as a tool for monitoring foreign threats overseas, but Americans’ communications are swept into the system and searched later without the kind of warrant the Fourth Amendment requires. The abuses have been widespread. Protesters, journalists, political donors, members of Congress, and others have been swept into improper searches. NSA employees were even caught using these surveillance tools to spy on spouses, former lovers, and romantic interests.

That is what happens when government power grows too large, and oversight becomes too weak. The power doesn’t stay neatly inside the original promise. There is always some threat. There is always some excuse. There is always some reason to give the government more power over us. After all, they say, only they can protect us.

That logic is now being used for ICE. We are told that immigrants are such an extreme danger that we need masked agents in tactical gear raiding workplaces, chasing people through neighborhoods, and breaking into homes. We are told this is necessary for safety.

The problem with the safety argument is that violent crime and homicides have been plummeting for years, including during the so-called “invasion” of the southern border and before ICE was militarized to this degree. The murder rate is the lowest ever recorded since the national database was created in 1960, and is likely the lowest in over a century. There is no crime wave, no grave threat.

And yet, there has been a massive surge in funding for immigration enforcement. Congress already injected $170 billion into immigration enforcement last year, and the most recent law adds nearly $70 billion more through 2029, bringing the multi-year total to roughly $240 billion. Much of that money is available immediately, giving the administration enormous flexibility to front-load enforcement spending. As a single-year budget, it is larger than the military spending of every nation except two, one of which is our own.

This is not about safety. It is about power.

It is about people in government testing how far they can go. How large a militarized force can be deployed on US soil? How aggressively can it be used? How many rights can be eroded or trampled flat?

This isn’t only dangerous to public safety. It also destroys the bond between the government and the people. Every abuse without accountability erodes trust. That distrust does not stay confined to ICE. It spreads across the government. People begin to understand that the official account is often just a story. They realize the government will protect its agents before it protects their rights. They begin to see law enforcement not as part of the community, but as a force imposed upon them.

A free country cannot function properly when masked agents can detain anyone without clear identification or just cause, when families are afraid to go to court, when children are harmed by chemical weapons, when journalists and protesters are treated as enemies, and when official claims collapse after people have already been jailed, injured, deported, or killed.

That is why ICE should be abolished.

Abolishing ICE does not mean abolishing immigration law. It means taking immigration enforcement out of the hands of a militarized agency and rebuilding it as a civil system. A replacement agency should focus on case management, screenings, court scheduling, notices, compliance support, and removal orders after due process. Local law enforcement should continue handling criminal cases regardless of immigration status, with convictions reported to the immigration system. CBP should remain limited to the border and ports of entry. Apprehensions within the country should be narrow, accountable, and focused on individuals who have received final removal orders after due process and have refused to comply. Those removals must be performed carefully, with the safety of the community as the top priority, not as a rush to fulfill government quotas, no matter who gets hurt.

This issue should not be as partisan as it has become. Freedom from government overreach used to be a principle Americans across the political spectrum valued. The right to due process. The right to protest. The right to be secure in your home. The right not to be treated as an enemy by your own government.

America was born from rebellion against government oppression. Liberty was not supposed to be a slogan we put on flags while accepting masked agents in our streets. It is the lifeblood of the nation, the force that keeps government power limited and ordinary people protected.

It is time to find that passion once again.