Former GOP Operative Steve Schmidt Calls for Dismantling DHS and Abolishing ICE
Key Takeaways
- •Steve Schmidt is demanding the dismissal of every ICE agent who completed President Trump's condensed 47-day training program and was issued a badge and weapon.
- •Schmidt's call for accountability was prompted by recent fatal ICE shootings in Texas and Maine and the reported removal of FBI investigators from probes into those incidents.
- •Schmidt advocated for the complete abolition of both ICE, created in 2003, and DHS, the third-largest federal department with approximately 240,000 employees established in 2002 after the September 11 attacks.
- •Proposals to restructure or eliminate DHS have periodically been raised by progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups, but none has advanced in Congress.
- •Schmidt previously advised Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign before leaving the Republican Party in 2018 and becoming a prominent Trump administration critic.
Former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt has called for a sweeping purge of Trump administration officials tied to recent controversies, demanding the dismissal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents trained under President Donald Trump's accelerated program and the dismantling of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) altogether.
Speaking on his program "The Warning," Schmidt described ICE as "irredeemable" and argued that every agent who completed Trump's condensed 47-day training program and was issued a badge and weapon should be terminated.
Schmidt's remarks were prompted by recent fatal ICE shootings in Texas and Maine. He asserted that officials who directed the removal of FBI investigators from probes into those incidents must face consequences. The FBI's role in independently reviewing fatal shootings involving federal law enforcement has long been considered a standard oversight mechanism, and the reported removal of bureau investigators from such probes has drawn scrutiny from civil liberties groups and members of Congress.
"Every government lawyer, every agent in the chain of custody of the memos that has ordered a withdrawal of FBI investigators from shootings involving ICE, their careers are over," Schmidt said.
"There's going to be a big purge of everybody who got in line with this," he added.
Beyond individual accountability, Schmidt advocated for the wholesale dismantling of DHS — the cabinet-level department established in 2002 in response to the September 11 attacks — and the complete abolition of ICE, which was created in 2003 under DHS as part of the post-9/11 government reorganization. With roughly 240,000 employees across nearly two dozen component agencies, DHS is the third-largest federal department, and proposals to restructure or eliminate it have periodically surfaced among progressive lawmakers and advocacy organizations, though none has advanced in Congress. Schmidt framed these measures as necessary steps to restore the integrity of federal law enforcement.
Schmidt, a veteran political consultant who previously advised Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, left the Republican Party in 2018 and has since become a prominent critic of the Trump administration.
Source: Raw Story