ICE brokers stand on the scene the place ICE brokers fatally shot a lady earlier within the day in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7, 2026. | Christopher Juhn/Anadolu through Getty Images
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A collection of current polls hammer residence simply how unpopular ICE has turn into: Almost half of voters say they’d like to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and 6 in 10 say the company has gone too far.
This week, Senate Democrats are trying to leverage that disapproval into reform.
I need to be clear on one factor up prime: We don’t but know the nitty-gritty of the Democrats’ coverage proposals. During a press convention on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was requested if any of those points represented “red lines” for him, and he basically mentioned that Democrats knew they wanted to negotiate nonetheless.
That mentioned, the proposals he introduced present an early have a look at one attainable path ahead. In at present’s version, we reply the query: What are Democrats demanding of ICE — and what are they leaving off the desk?
Historically, ICE made comparatively few arrests at houses, worksites, and different public locations. Instead, “the vast majority of arrests that ICE used to conduct were really transfers of custody from a state or local authority to the federal government,” mentioned David Hausman, a UC Berkeley Law assistant professor and the school director of the Deportation Data Project.
An finish to “roving patrols”
As Hausman not too long ago explained to my colleague Christian Paz, nonetheless, that norm has modified — and radically — underneath President Donald Trump. ICE now carries out 1000’s of “at-large” arrests in public. Many stem from so-called “roving patrols,” during which immigration officers cease and interrogate individuals about their immigration standing and not using a warrant.
Senate Democrats pitched a two-part resolution to this roving downside: first, a requirement that ICE coordinate with state and native police; and second, a revision of the principles governing immigration arrest warrants.
Presumably, these reforms would nudge ICE again to its pre-2025 norm, when arrests nearly all the time resulted from focused enforcement actions. (Ironically, the Supreme Court had the chance to rein in roving patrols final 12 months… and truly did the other.)
A uniform code of conduct
We’ve all seen the movies — and so they’re typically violent. ICE brokers across the nation have smashed automotive home windows, rammed down doorways, and tackled, beat or Tasered topics of immigration enforcement operations. Since Trump’s second inauguration, brokers used chokeholds and different banned, life-threatening maneuvers on not less than 40 events with out penalties, a ProPublica investigation discovered.
To curtail that violence, Democrats say that federal brokers must be topic to the identical use-of-force insurance policies that govern state and native legislation enforcement businesses. Such insurance policies differ of their specifics, however they sometimes require officers to deescalate harmful confrontations and constrain once they can use lethal drive. Just as necessary, use-of-force guidelines typically embrace necessary reporting and investigation necessities.
The satan is within the particulars, although: Who will conduct these investigations? And will victims of ICE acquire the flexibility to sue the offending brokers?
Masks off, cameras on
ICE’s new predilection for face gaiters and aviator sun shades “enables abuse by making it harder for the mistreated to identify abusive officers, and thus hold them to account,” as my colleague Eric Levitz put it. That has been true even within the highest-profile and most carefully scrutinized instances: According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, state investigators nonetheless don’t know the names of the brokers who shot and killed Alex Pretti final weekend.
Democrats are demanding that federal immigration brokers take away face coverings, carry seen identification, and put on physique cameras sooner or later. “No more anonymous agents, no more secret operatives,” mentioned Schumer.
This is perhaps probably the most easy of the reforms, on paper. But it’s additionally a controversial one: Republicans insist that masks shield ICE brokers from harassment, and a few have additionally argued that the bipartisan funding invoice negotiated earlier than Pretti’s demise included $20 million for body-worn cameras.
What about abolishing ICE?
For these of you maintaining rating at residence, you’ll discover that many would-be reforms didn’t make Democrats’ listing. Senators reportedly debated greater than a dozen concepts for reining in ICE earlier than deciding on what Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia referred to as “a limited number of reforms that will put significant restraints on potential abuses.” Bills launched within the Senate and the House over the previous 12 months have additionally proposed a variety of potential guardrails.
Those embrace an express ban on racial profiling throughout immigration stops; a prohibition on ICE raids at “sensitive locations” akin to faculties and church buildings; the elimination of arrest quotas; the withdrawal of federal brokers from Minneapolis; a ban on the detainment of US residents; and a compulsory overview of all use-of-force incidents.
Many activists and progressive lawmakers have additionally referred to as for the dissolution of ICE, a place that — in accordance to a few current polls — has gained fast traction with voters.
Schumer has reportedly instructed his caucus to give attention to a unique purpose, nonetheless: “restrain, reform, and restrict” immigration enforcement. And if that doesn’t work, Congress, the courts, and the general public nonetheless have a number of different choices.
