A Democratic member of Congress is moving to shut down one of the most visible pieces of America's border surveillance infrastructure, arguing that the program has failed to save lives and instead stands as a costly symbol of a broader enforcement system she wants dismantled.
Rep. Delia Ramirez of Illinois said she plans to introduce legislation that would terminate the surveillance tower program along the U.S. southern border, a proposal that comes only days after MIT Technology Review published an investigation showing that more than 1,050 people died within the advertised range of the towers between 2015 and early 2026. Ramirez cited that reporting directly, saying nearly "1,100 people have died within range of a billion-dollar surveillance tower system between 2015 and 2026," and adding, "The towers that we have paid a billion dollars to just don't work."
The announcement lands at a moment of renewed scrutiny over the federal government's border technology spending and the human cost of enforcement. MIT Technology Review's investigation, titled "Dying on Camera," examined deaths along the border that occurred near one or more of the towers and found that nearly one in four deaths analyzed over that period took place within their advertised range. The reporting also found that the Department of Homeland Security does not track those deaths or maintain other metrics that would allow the public to assess whether the towers are actually succeeding or failing.
Ramirez, who serves on the Homeland Security Committee and is the ranking member of its cybersecurity subcommittee, framed the proposal as part of a larger effort to curb what she described as state surveillance and militarized enforcement. At a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday, she said, "There's no question that DHS has to be dismantled. We need to provide them a road map in how we do it."
The legislation, called the Reimagining Safety Act, was developed with input from community groups and local and state representatives, according to Ramirez's office. It is also intended to fit within a broader restructuring plan that would replace the Department of Homeland Security with a new Department of Community Safety, while shifting functions now handled by agencies such as CISA, FEMA, TSA and customs to other existing federal departments. Her office has not yet released the bill text, saying it will be made public in the coming weeks.
The proposal is being shaped in part by advocacy organizations Just Futures Law and Mijente, both of which have pushed for a more sweeping rethinking of immigration enforcement and border technology. The groups helped develop the call to terminate the tower program after issuing a joint report earlier this year on technology used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ramirez's move comes amid growing political pressure over the role of immigration enforcement agencies in the second Trump administration, which has been marked by highly visible operations in American cities, expansion of detention infrastructure, and shootings involving ICE and CBP agents. The issue has become even more charged following the shooting of Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a delivery driver who was shot in the back by an ICE agent last weekend in Austin, Texas.
For Ramirez, the answer is not simply to abolish ICE in isolation. She argued that the entire homeland security apparatus must be reconsidered, saying the goal is to limit state surveillance, rein in unlawful data abuses and curb militarized enforcement while beginning "the process of establishing a separate civil immigration system."
The proposal faces a difficult path in Congress. Similar efforts to dismantle DHS have been introduced before, but none have advanced far, and even some Democrats are likely to prefer reform over abolition. Still, Ramirez's position on the committee that oversees the department gives the effort a platform, and her role on the cybersecurity subcommittee could help keep attention on the technology and data practices underpinning border enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded sharply, saying, "Radical leftists are calling to defund the p" before the statement was cut off in the source material.
The debate now extends beyond whether the towers work as advertised. It has become a broader argument over what kind of border policy the United States should fund, what counts as public safety, and whether a billion-dollar surveillance network can be justified when so many deaths have occurred in its shadow.