ICE was created in 2003 as part of a broad expansion of national security enforcement during the U.S. government’s “war on terror.” That expansion included mass surveillance, aggressive policing, increased racial profiling, and the treatment of immigration primarily as a security issue rather than a human or economic one.

As part of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE treats immigrants as security threats rather than as people who are part of our communities. Its main purpose is to detain and deport immigrants.

As if this writing (Jan, 2026), an estimated 68,000 people are jailed in immigrant detention facilities daily. Since January 2025, more than 390,000 people have been deported—each one a family member, neighbor, or friend torn from our communities. People detained by ICE are often taken to detention centers far from their loved ones, almost always in inhumane living conditions. They do not have a right to legal representation in immigration proceedings.

Why is AFSC (American Friends Service Committee) calling to abolish ICE?

Because the very mission of ICE is at odds with values we hold dear—treating all people with dignity and respect. An agency created to tear apart communities cannot be reformed into one that strengthens them. 

Since its inception, ICE has routinely violated human rights. ICE agents and police officers colluding with ICE engage in racial profiling, warrantless searches, detention without probable cause, and fabrication of evidence. Millions of people have had their lives destroyed by detention and deportation.

Since January 2025, ICE has dramatically increased its use of violent tactics. In cities and towns around the U.S., armed masked agents have grabbed people from their homes, cars, workplaces, near schools, and at courthouses and routine immigration check-ins.

The murders of Renee Good and Silverio Villegas González by ICE agents are among the most recent examples of the deadly violence inherent in the agency. Violence and terror are at the core of how ICE operates.

ICE provides substandard medical care to those in detention, which has proven deadly. In 2025, 32 people died in ICE custody—the highest number ever since the agency’s creation. Beyond these deaths, there is no shortage of documented accounts of ICE abuse and neglect in detention, including violent physical and sexual assaults, chronic food shortages, and unsanitary conditions.

Despite this long history of human rights violations, ICE has remained unaccountable to the courts, to our communities, and to Congress, which has repeatedly urged ICE to improve detention standards and address fiscal mismanagement. The agency has largely ignored these demands.