Rep. Ro Khanna called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the creation of a new immigration agency, while Rep. Pramila Jayapal accused the Trump administration of undermining due process and targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander immigrants.
The Democratic lawmakers made the remarks Tuesday during a virtual press briefing hosted by Stop AAPI Hate, which launched a new interactive A/PI ICE Tracker examining arrests, detentions and deportations involving Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
The tracker draws on ICE data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the Deportation Data Project. Stop AAPI Hate said its analysis covers the period from Jan. 20, 2025, through Aug. 6, 2026.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, arrests involving people from Asian countries increased 436% compared with an equivalent period under the previous administration. Detentions increased 512%, while deportations increased 1,103%. The organization said the increases were substantially higher than the overall increases in ICE activity during the same period.
Khanna, who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, said the findings showed the need for fundamental changes to the immigration enforcement system.
“In my view, we need to abolish ICE,” Khanna said during the briefing. “We need to start from scratch. We need a new immigration agency in America like we had from the New Deal to the Bush era.” Khanna said the proposed agency should be placed under the Justice Department and that immigration officers should be required to follow established legal standards.
“We should stand up against this abuse. There is not another dollar to this rogue agency,” he said. Khanna also highlighted the impact on Asian American communities in California and Pennsylvania, saying that 25% of Asian American arrests and detentions identified in the report occurred in California. He said he had visited a California detention facility and described conditions there as “extraordinary” and “inhumane.”
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He also used the briefing to emphasize the contributions of Asian American immigrants to the U.S. economy and technology sector. “We need to talk about what Asian Americans and immigrants contribute to America,” Khanna said, citing the role of immigrants in artificial intelligence, technology, construction, hospitality, agriculture and caregiving.
Jayapal, the Washington Democrat and ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, focused on what she described as the broader consequences of immigration enforcement on AAPI communities.
“As the top Democrat on the immigration subcommittee, as an immigrant myself, as one of only two dozen naturalized citizens to serve in Congress,” Jayapal said, “I want you to know that we are doing everything we can to fight back against the cruelty, against the undermining of due process protections and criminalization of all immigrants.”
Jayapal pointed to the 436% increase in Asian arrests, 512% increase in detentions and 1,103% increase in deportations identified by Stop AAPI Hate. “These are stunning numbers, not anecdotal, but patterns of violence and cruelty,” Jayapal said.
She cited several individual immigration cases, including Filipino immigrant Maximo Londonio, who she said was held for two months, including 27 days in solitary confinement, despite being a lawful permanent resident. She also referenced Llewellyn Dixon, whom she said had lived in the United States for more than 50 years and was detained at an airport before later becoming a U.S. citizen.
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Jayapal also cited the case of Loreto Havar, a 76-year-old green card holder with stage 4 cancer who she said was detained after appearing for required ICE check-ins. She also mentioned Chongli Scott Tao, a Hmong grandfather and U.S. citizen whose arrest by ICE in St. Paul was captured on video.
She said she had recently visited the Stewart Detention Facility in Georgia as part of her congressional oversight work and called for continued efforts to release detainees and close for-profit detention facilities.
“We will not stop doing the work to advocate for the release of detainees, to demand the closure of these for-profit prisons, and to showcase what is happening through the series of hearings that I’ve been holding,” Jayapal said. Jayapal said the new tracker would help communities understand the scale and geographic distribution of immigration enforcement.
“This API ICE tracker helps us to educate our communities and the general public about the magnitude of what is happening,” she said. “It helps us to be strategic about our responses, and it helps us to organize a broad coalition of people to fight back against this.”
The tracker allows users to examine ICE arrests, detentions and deportations by state, country of origin, age and gender. Stop AAPI Hate said the tool is intended to make the data more accessible to journalists, researchers, community organizations and the public. The lawmakers’ comments came as the new data tool put a more detailed focus on how immigration enforcement is affecting Asian and Pacific Islander communities across the United States.