Hard-left Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke about dismantling the Department of Homeland Security at a town hall on Wednesday night, escalating her criticism of federal immigration enforcement.
An audience member asked, “How do we get ICE out of America?”
“What I will say is that there is a [sic] easier conversation happening today than six, seven years ago, when I got to Congress, about what we need to do with ICE, which is to abolish it,” Omar replied. “There is a lot of conversation about what the dismantlement [sic] of the Department of Homeland Security should look like, because right now, the agencies that are put together — do not have accountability in the way that that formation exists. And it’s very important for us — if we’re not going to go back, to pre-2002, in looking at how these agencies used to operate, without this level of brutality that we are seeing — then we need to figure out a different system, and that can work for people where little children are not afraid of federal agents trying to carry out the duties they were designated to carry out but instead ended up terrorizing whole communities.”
Ilhan Omar says Democrats don’t just want to abolish ICE, they’re already planning how they will dismantle DHS entirely.
OMAR: “There is a lot of conversation about what the dismantlement of the Department of Homeland Security should look like.” pic.twitter.com/XxPXUUuSPq
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 19, 2026
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, marking the most significant federal reorganization since 1947. The coordinated attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000. The Islamic extremist attack on America was orchestrated by Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network.
The attacks involved 19 hijackers — primarily Saudi nationals — seizing four commercial aircraft. Two planes struck the World Trade Center in New York City, and a third hit the Pentagon. A fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake control from the hijackers. The attacks exposed critical vulnerabilities in domestic intelligence and aviation security, prompting President George W. Bush to establish the Office of Homeland Security just one month later.
In 2002, the Homeland Security Act formally authorized the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which began operations on March 1, 2003. The new department consolidated 22 federal agencies and roughly 180,000 employees under a single umbrella to centralize:
- Counterterrorism: Addressing the specific threat of radicalized extremism.
- Border Security: Unifying the CBP and ICE to monitor points of entry.
- Intelligence Sharing: Bridging the gaps that allowed the 9/11 plot to go undetected.
- Emergency Response: Integrating FEMA for disaster resilience.
Today, DHS employs about 260,000 people. While it was created in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, its mission has expanded to include cybersecurity as well as responsibilities related to election integrity.
Despite ongoing political debates over immigration and asylum policies, the DHS remains the federal government’s central agency for integrated homeland defense, ensuring the United States is better prepared for both foreign and domestic threats.
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