More than 100 left-leaning Democrats, many aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, are pressing New York's top congressional power brokers to go all in on a volatile immigration fight. In a formal letter, they are urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to publicly back calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing the agency's tactics have grown dangerous and unaccountable after a string of deadly encounters.
According to the New York Post, the letter was circulated on July 20 and bears signatures from State Sen. Julia Salazar, City Councilmember Shahana Hanif and Assemblymember Diana Moreno, along with dozens of other Democrats and self-identified DSA members. The Post reports that the signers are not interested in half-measures, urging Schumer and Jeffries to endorse ending ICE outright instead of settling for incremental reforms.
What the letter asks
The letter frames abolition as the only meaningful response to what it calls systemic abuses inside ICE. Rather than rebranding or tweaking the agency, the signers want Schumer and Jeffries to use their clout to push for its dismantling. They argue that shutting the agency down is the only way to stop recurring tragedies and to force a fundamentally different federal approach to immigration enforcement.
Push follows two deadly ICE shootings
Advocates say the timing is no coincidence. They point to two recent fatal encounters as the immediate spark: the July 7 shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and the July 13 killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine. Reporting from Reuters describes how both deaths fueled public outrage and triggered official investigations, while AP has detailed how the cases helped prompt a temporary pause in many ICE vehicle stops as officials reviewed what happened.
Where Schumer and Jeffries stand
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has stopped well short of abolition, but he has publicly said the Department of Homeland Security needs to be "dramatically reformed" and has pushed for measures such as body cameras, requiring agents to show their faces during operations and in some situations securing judicial warrants. ABC News reported his comments, noting that earlier this year Jeffries and Schumer circulated a detailed list of reform demands to Republican leaders as part of the DHS funding negotiations. Coverage of that funding fight, including reporting from Semafor, showed how those demands helped shape the contentious spring standoff.
Local politics, national stakes
Several of the key signers hail from Brooklyn districts or broader New York political circles, a reminder that the city's progressive wing has national ambitions and no hesitation about pressing its own leadership. By putting their names on an "abolish ICE" letter aimed squarely at Schumer and Jeffries, these lawmakers are ratcheting up pressure on two of the most powerful Democrats in Washington, who now have to juggle internal party dynamics, vocal home-state constituents and the realities of governing in a divided Capitol.
Legal and investigatory fallout
In the wake of the Maine shooting, state and federal authorities have launched reviews, while in Houston local prosecutors say they will run parallel inquiries into the Texas case, complicating the legal landscape and fueling calls for accountability. The Houston Chronicle has outlined the multiple investigations, and AP has chronicled the mounting community responses.
So far, Schumer and Jeffries have not embraced the "abolish ICE" slogan, and it is unclear whether national Democratic leaders will ever adopt abolition language or opt instead for tighter oversight and statutory fixes. Either way, the letter turns up the heat on party leadership as lawmakers head into more hearings and votes, weighing both the political risk and the policy stakes of how far to go.
