Democrats forced a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year over their list of demands that included narrowing how and when ICE can arrest people, barring officers from wearing masks and imposing a stricter policy for use of force.
Democrats did not receive any concessions then, but they said that if they win control of the House in the November midterm elections, their 10-point demand list would serve as a blueprint for the changes they would force on President Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A top goal will be to limit the number of arrests.
“The problem is, they’re going after Dreamers,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar, California Democrat, referring to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, often without any hand in the decision, and who are seen as the most sympathetic figures in the immigration debate.
“There’s going to be a lot of reflection on what DHS operations should look like,” said Mr. Aguilar, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus. “But it should be based on the principle of fairness, and it should be based on using their vast powers on removing violent criminals who are unauthorized to be in this country.”
The department has been a major focus for Democrats, who decry Mr. Trump’s push for mass deportations and argue that illegal immigrants have a right to live in the U.S.
Some on the party’s left wing, such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, have called for abolishing ICE.
“I believe that ICE, an agency that was just formed in 2003 during the Patriot Act era, is a rogue agency that should not exist,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in a fundraising email last year. ICE was, in fact, created under the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
Those voices are growing. Three Democrats — Melat Kiros, running in Colorado’s 1st Congressional District; Darializa Avila Chevalier, running in New York’s 13th Congressional District; and Brad Lander, running in New York’s 10th Congressional District — won congressional primaries in June, in part because of their support for abolishing ICE.
“We must abolish ICE. Masked agents kidnapping innocent people off the streets and disappearing them into ICE facilities does not make us safer or protect American jobs. We need to hold the politicians who peddle these lies accountable,” Ms. Kiros wrote on her campaign website.
Mr. Aguilar distanced himself from the idea.
“It’s not a phrase I use; it’s not a policy I believe in,” he said. “There will continue to be immigration enforcement. We should guide it to the most responsible way to remove violent criminals.”
In a statement to The Washington Times, the Homeland Security Department said Democrats are mischaracterizing the administration’s immigration approach.
The department said nearly 70% of ICE arrests are migrants who either have criminal convictions or pending charges, and they are the priority.
Still, the department said, all illegal immigrants should fear arrest: “Our message is clear: If you come to our country illegally, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”
Democrats’ 10-point wish list of changes at the department, issued during the shutdown fight, would ban immigration officers from wearing masks and require them to display identifying information and wear body cameras so they can be tracked and monitored.
It would bar arrests at or near hospitals and clinics, schools, churches, daycare centers and a host of other locations.
It would also reform the way the department handles use of force, with new standards for responding to incidents and new rules for investigating them.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, Texas Democrat, said those will be high priorities if Democrats gain control on Capitol Hill.
“We’ll start with what we’ve already talked about, which was our 10-point plan for real reforms in ICE,” she said.
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