The most basic responsibility of an officer of the law is to obey the law. The police and federal agents have enormous powers. They can arrest people, forcibly enter their homes and commit violence in the government’s name. If they violate the rules for using those powers, they can become abusers of the citizens they are entrusted to protect.
The Department of Homeland Security under President Trump has followed this dark path. Too often over the past year, its behavior has been lawless.
In enacting Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, officers from the department have repeatedly defied the Constitution. They have violated the First Amendment by trampling on citizens’ rights to speech and assembly. They have subverted the Second Amendment guarantee of the freedom to bear arms. They have violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches.
The department’s officers have pushed other federal laws to the breaking point and beyond, often ignoring judicial orders in the process. They have moved detainees to skirt a judge’s jurisdiction. They have deported detainees in violation of judges’ rulings. “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Judge Patrick Schiltz, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote.
As insidious as this behavior has been, the lack of accountability for it may be even worse. Mr. Trump and his top aides are shielding Homeland Security officials and agents who break the law from consequences. After agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the Trump administration initially blocked civil rights inquiries into the shootings. The administration instead impugned the victims with statements that video evidence refuted. Vice President JD Vance and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s close aide, made comments suggesting they believed that agents had unbounded authority to act as they wanted. Congress must now intervene and stand up for the law. It has the leverage to do so. Late last month, Democrats and a small number of Senate Republicans, alarmed by the administration’s behavior, rallied to block future funding for Homeland Security. In exchange for new funding, Democrats are rightly insisting on changes to the administration’s behavior. As negotiations drag out and the shock of events in Minneapolis recedes, the political pressure to rein in the D.H.S. may fade. Congress should hold firm.
Every American has an interest in this effort. The administration’s lawlessness affects far more than the immigrants, Minnesota residents and others subject to its current abuses. It undermines social order by making citizens distrust their government. It unfairly calls into question the decency and professionalism of the many federal agents and police officers around the country who continue to do a difficult job well. And it sets us on a dangerous course in which the tactics now used against a few may ultimately be wielded against many more.
Congressional Democrats have released a list of demands, and they are largely sensible. In several items, Democrats insist on a return to the checks and balances crucial to democratic governance. The Trump administration, for example, has been issuing its own warrants (known as administrative warrants) that allow agents to enter a home without a finding of probable cause by a judge; Democrats say the administration must instead seek a traditional warrant from a judge. They are right. Under the current approach, the administration could potentially enter anybody’s home, without a judge’s oversight, under the guise of searching for illegal immigrants.
Other items would introduce vital accountability for Homeland Security agents and officials. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents could no longer wear masks as part of their standard gear. They should show their faces, as other public officials — like police officers, judges and lawmakers — do. Masks diminish public trust and facilitate lawlessness. For similar reasons, officers should also need to wear identification on their uniforms when interacting with the public, as the Democrats demand. Officers should undergo more extensive training and adhere to reasonable use-of-force policies. They should wear uniforms and equipment that do not resemble those of an invading army. Many of these standards are the same ones that police departments follow.
The Democrats’ list also rightly includes restraints on the leaders of the Department of Homeland Security. They would have to end the racial profiling now being used to question and detain many Latino, Asian and Black people. They would have to preserve evidence after a violent encounter and share it with local officials. Detainment facilities would need to meet basic standards for humane treatment.
The list is overly broad in places and offers a reminder of why many Americans have lost faith in the Democratic Party on this issue. Democrats should make clear that they support the legitimate enforcement of immigration law. They should avoid the sweeping statements that some members of the party have used in recent years, including calls for sanctuary cities, the decriminalization of border crossings and the abolition of ICE. Recent polls show that Mr. Trump’s thuggish immigration policies are unpopular — but that more Americans still trust the Republican Party on immigration than the Democratic Party.
In the course of negotiating with congressional Republicans, Democrats can drop the more questionable items on their list and stand firm on the vital ones. Even more important, congressional Republicans should summon more political courage than they have for most of the Trump era and join Democrats in insisting that the administration follow the law. Conservatives have long bemoaned the corrosive effects that unchecked illegality and disorder bring on society. When the illegality stems from the government itself, the damage is even worse.
After 250 years of republican rule, it can be hard for many Americans to imagine what happens to a country when its government goes rogue. The residents of Minnesota and other cities subject to the Trump immigration crackdown have recently experienced a version of it. People have been harassed, humiliated, assaulted and even killed by federal law enforcement. And people do not know where to turn for help, because government officials who are supposed to protect them are the ones doling out the abuse. When societies start down this road, they often continue.
Restraining the Department of Homeland Security is important for its own sake. But it also has the potential to become a model for how Congress can confront the Trump administration’s lawlessness in other areas, including the Justice Department’s transformation into a tool of Mr. Trump’s personal interests. If Congress insists that Homeland Security follows the law or loses its funding, the message will be powerful.
A special feature of the our republic is the Bill of Rights, created to protect Americans against overreach by the federal government. The purpose of the Constitution, as a result, is not just to grant powers to the federal government but to define the limits of those powers. Congressional Republicans took an oath to uphold the Constitution. They took an oath to uphold those limits — to prevent the government from engaging in these kinds of abuses — and they must do so. The current crisis isn’t just a test of the balance of powers. It’s a test of the Bill of Rights.
Source photograph by Kerem Yucel/Getty Images.
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