We, the members of AFSCME Local 1215, affirm our support for the efforts of sibling unions, community organizations, and candidates for political office at all levels that are working towards the goal of abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency. This statement not only endorses the principle of ICE abolition but, further, ratifies our intention as a Local to assist these efforts in all the ways that we can, and to encourage AFSCME Council 31 and AFSCME International to likewise provide material support for the project of abolishing the agency. ICE’s goal is to fundamentally attack worker and community solidarity, and as such its existence is an attack on our values as a union.
ICE was created in 2003 as part of a broad expansion of national security enforcement during the U.S. government’s “war on terror.” That expansion included mass domestic surveillance, aggressive policing, increased racial profiling, and the treatment of immigration primarily as a security issue rather than a human or economic one. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE treats immigrants as security threats rather than as people who are part of our communities.
From its founding, ICE has routinely violated human rights. ICE agents engage in racial profiling, warrantless searches, detention without probable cause, and fabrication of evidence. Millions of people have had their lives destroyed by detention and deportation, and many others have suffered injury and death at ICE’s hands. In 2025, thirty-two people died in ICE custody. Despite countless demands for reform, ICE has remained unaccountable to the courts, to our communities, and to Congress.
The murders of Keith Porter, Jr., Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and numerous others who have been killed and injured on the streets and in detention facilities by ICE agents—these are just the most recent examples of the deadly violence inherent in the agency. Violence and terror are at the core of how ICE operates. Despite this, support for ICE has been bipartisan for many years, with Democrats and Republicans alike voting in favor of increasing the agency’s funding. Since January 2025, ICE has dramatically increased its use of violent tactics. In cities and towns around the U.S., armed masked agents have kidnapped people from their homes, cars, workplaces, near schools, and at courthouses and routine immigration check-ins.
Despite this, Congress is in the midst of debating an appalling $400 million increase of taxpayer dollars to ICE for detention, on top of the unprecedented $45 billion the agency already received last year through 2029. Just last year, 75 Democrats including Illinois representatives Nikki Budzinski, Eric Sorensen, Bill Foster, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Robin Kelly, and Brad Schneider, voted to “thank ICE” for their service. Illinois Republican representatives Mike Bost, Mary Miller, and Darin LaHood likewise voted in favor of thanking ICE. AFSCME Local 1215 opposes any endorsement by AFSCME of these candidates for reelection, should they seek office.
Our Local additionally demands that representatives support the “Melt ICE” Act introduced to Congress by Illinois Representative Delia Ramirez, and that Council 31 refuse to support any candidate that votes in favor of increasing ICE’s funding.