- Amnesty International called for abolishing ICE, saying the agency cannot be repaired through piecemeal reforms.
- Its 168-page report examines alleged human rights violations in four U.S. cities: Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
- Amnesty backs the Melt ICE Act, which would end detention contracts within two years of enactment.
Amnesty International called on September 24, 2026, for the United States to abolish U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying alleged human rights violations in enforcement operations show the agency cannot be repaired through piecemeal changes. The call followed a 168-page report focused on operations in four cities.
The report examines enforcement activity in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans and Washington, DC. It is titled We Had Whistles, They Had Guns and carries document number AMR 51/1443/2026. Amnesty published the report on September 24, 2026.
Free toolUSCIS Receipt Number Decoder
The organization said this was the first time in its 65-year history that it had called for abolishing a government agency. Its demand is not for a narrower set of policy changes.
Nadia Daar, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, said the agency is “fundamentally broken and cannot be fixed.” She said the government would need to start over to establish an immigration enforcement system that meets international human rights standards.
“There are simply no reforms that would bring this agency into alignment with the United States’s human rights obligations”
Amy Fischer, the organization’s Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights, said that no reform could bring the agency into line with those obligations. She described the abolition demand as a rare step for the organization.
The report describes alleged killings, detention abuses and surveillance
The report says enforcement operations involved unlawful killings, discriminatory detentions, violent repression of peaceful protest, mass surveillance and inhumane detention conditions. Amnesty characterizes the incidents as evidence of a broader pattern.
Among the cases identified in the report and related campaign materials are fatal shootings involving Alex Pretti and Silverio Villegas-Gonzalez. Amnesty has also called for an independent investigation into Renee Good’s killing.
The allegations extend to people held in detention. Amnesty says detainees were denied attorneys and kept in conditions that “may amount to torture.”
The organization’s argument is that changing individual practices would not address the pattern it describes. Its proposed remedy is abolition, rather than adjustments to the agency’s existing operations.
Amnesty also says the Trump administration is building a mass detention and deportation system fueled by “racist, xenophobic and false narratives.” The report’s focus on four locations gives geographic scope to its allegations, but the organization’s public campaign describes the claimed violations as widespread.
The campaign asks Congress to end detention and deportation policies
Alongside the report, Amnesty launched a petition urging Congress to dissolve the agency and end mass detention and deportation policies. Its campaign page says the organization has documented widespread violations since January 2025 under the Trump administration.
The campaign also backs the Melt ICE Act (H.R. 7190). The proposal would remove the agency’s authority to detain immigrants and end existing detention contracts within two years of enactment.
It would also block new Department of Homeland Security detention or surveillance contracts. Funding would instead go to community-based services.
Those provisions set out specific congressional action Amnesty supports alongside its broader demand to dissolve the agency. The petition calls for Congress to end the detention and deportation policies; the legislation lays out changes to detention authority, contracts and funding.
Trump argued abolition would make Americans less safe
Donald Trump opposed the abolition proposal, saying it would release people he called “criminal illegal aliens” from jails into American communities. He described its proponents as “Radical Democrats and the far-Left.”
“These policies would make Americans less safe.”
The response contrasts with Amnesty’s claim that the current enforcement system itself puts communities at risk. Daar said masked, armed federal agents attacking people in the streets with impunity do not make communities safer and instead put everyone in danger.
Amnesty’s campaign separately calls for independent investigations into use-of-force incidents and an end to facial recognition surveillance technologies. Those are demands attributed to the organization, not specified here as recommendations in the report.
The organization argues that no level of reform can bring the agency into compliance with international human rights law and standards. H.R. 7190 would end existing detention contracts within two years of enactment.
