WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas is pushing back against calls from some progressives to abolish or defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that most Democrats support keeping the agency while imposing tighter limits on how it operates.
Cuellar, who represents a South Texas border district, is expected to chair the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee when Democrats take control of the chamber. That position would give him significant influence over ICE funding and immigration enforcement policy.
“I don’t believe in defunding ICE, and I think the majority of the Democrats do not believe defunding ICE,” Cuellar told Fox News Digital.
At the same time, he said the agency needs “serious guardrails,” particularly when enforcement targets undocumented immigrants without violent criminal records. President Donald Trump made a similar acknowledgment Sunday, saying parts of his deportation policy had been “too tough.”
Cuellar also criticized the Biden administration’s border policies, saying Democrats should not return to an approach that allowed large numbers of asylum seekers to enter while their cases were pending.
His comments place him between two competing factions within the Democratic Party: progressives calling for major structural changes to ICE and centrists who favor continued enforcement with stronger oversight.
Cuellar won reelection last week by more than 36 points in a district Trump carried in 2024, strengthening his influence within the party’s border-policy debate.
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