The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Letter on DHS Reform

Immigrant Rights Resources 03.18.26

A PDF of this letter can be found here

March 18, 2026

Dear Member of Congress:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, I am writing to reiterate policy recommendations for immigration enforcement that we and many of our coalition members made in a February 2 letter to Congress.

Since then, we are deeply troubled that President Trump has opted for a harmful shutdown of FEMA, the TSA, and many other largely noncontroversial agencies within DHS, instead of working with Congress on badly-needed reforms of ICE and CBP.

The removal of Kristi Noem as DHS Secretary is a positive step. But it does not resolve the real issue: Congress has given ICE and CBP virtually unlimited funding, with no meaningful additional guardrails. The many civil and human rights abuses we have witnessed in the past year – including First and Fourth Amendment violations, racial profiling, torture, mass surveillance, and even murder – were completely foreseeable consequences of H.R. 1.

ICE and CBP do not need – and do not deserve – another dime. Congress should be clawing back unspent funds from H.R. 1, not giving these agencies even more. In the meantime, Congress needs to:

  • Ensure that agents can be held accountable in court;
  • Increase agent transparency, by eliminating face masks and requiring visible ID;
  • Curtail surveillance abuses and data weaponization;
  • End racial and ethnic profiling;
  • End sensitive locations arrests, family and for-profit detention, and 287(g) agreements;
  • Reaffirm the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on arrests without a judicial warrant;
  • Stop militarized roving patrols and mass roundups; and
  • Require public reporting on uses of force and independent, cooperative investigations.

Many of our member groups have also provided sets of policy recommendations. While the phrasing and details may vary, we all share the same bottom line: ICE and CBP must be fully overhauled, and brought under control of the courts, Congress, and the Constitution.

Sincerely,

Maya Wiley
President and CEO