Espaillat calls for dismantlement of ICE at Hill Nation Summit

Skip to content

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), the first immigrant previously without legal status to enter Congress, on Wednesday called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be dismantled.

“What everybody’s seen was happening across the nation, really, not just Houston,” Espaillat told NewsNation’s Libbey Dean at the second Hill Nation Summit in Washington. “ICE as an agency that’s gripped with a culture of violence, very aggressive –– it’s almost like the violence is endemic in the very DNA of it right now, and I think it needs to be dismantled.”

Espaillat said lawmakers need to have a “deep discussion” about ICE’s future and how the U.S. handles federal immigration enforcement.

The New York Democrat talked about two recent ICE-involved fatal shootings, in Houston and Biddeford, Maine. He said he would travel to Houston for a field hearing to learn more about the circumstances leading up to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s death last week.

“We’re going to have this hearing and hear from witnesses, see the evidence that’s there, and get to the bottom of this,” Espaillat said. “What’s going on with this rogue agency?”

He said ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials should wear body cameras, having authored the ICE and CBP Body Camera Accountability Act. The bill builds upon a Biden administration-era body camera pilot program.

Any footage taken of criminal activity or, conversely, during “any pursuit that may come into question, in a court of law — that film footage is accessible as evidence,” the lawmaker added. He called for the bill to be passed, noting it “shouldn’t be haphazardly applied.”

ICE has faced renewed scrutiny following the two recent shootings, followed by a third incident Tuesday in St. Augustine, Fla., where a Mexican national was struck and killed by a tractor trailer after fleeing from a car during an incident with ICE officers.

ICE traffic stops were reportedly going to be put on pause, but President Trump on Wednesday said they would continue. He called the tactic one of ICE’s “most important and effective Crime Fighting tools.”

Separately, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE would continue to make arrests and help with deportations, while calling on those in the country illegally to leave.

Tags

Adriano Espaillat

Donald Trump

Joe Biden

Markwayne Mullin

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.