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Delia Ramirez and the Melt ICE Act

Delia Ramirez is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, married to a former Dreamer, and the author of a bill to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement. When a think tank warned Democrats against the "abolish ICE" slogan, she replied: "Fine! Abolish ICE and DHS."

·6 min read
Represents
Northwest Chicago (Humboldt Park)
28%of the district is foreign-born
Origin
Guatemala
Pathway
U.S.-born (2nd gen)
Citizenship
U.S.-born citizen
Religion
Methodist
Caucus
Progressive Caucus
First elected
2022
Heritage Action
26%
conservative score
NumbersUSA
F-
immigration grade
DW-NOMINATE
-0.496
liberal ← → conservative

Key Findings

  1. Delia Ramirez was born in Chicago in 1983, the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. She served in the Illinois legislature, won a House seat in 2022, and is a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

  2. She represents Illinois's 3rd district, in northwest Chicago and its near suburbs, which was 27.7% foreign-born as of 2024.

  3. Her DW-NOMINATE first-dimension score is −0.496 and her Heritage Action score is 0% for the current Congress.

  4. She introduced the Melt ICE Act to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her husband is a former recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. In January 2026 she posted, "Fine! Abolish ICE and DHS."

The boathouse and lagoon at Humboldt Park on Chicago's West Side, in the 3rd congressional district.
The boathouse and lagoon at Humboldt Park on Chicago's West Side, in the 3rd congressional district.Humboldt Park on Chicago's West Side, the working-class neighborhood where Ramirez grew up. Illinois's 3rd district is 27.7% foreign-born. Photo: Peter Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

Delia Ramirez has made immigration enforcement the center of her politics, and she has a personal stake in it. Her husband was a Dreamer. Her mother crossed the border while pregnant with her. Her signature bill would defund the agency that enforces the line her family crossed.

Chicago, second generation

Ramirez was born in Chicago in 1983 to Guatemalan immigrants. Her mother crossed the Rio Grande while pregnant with her, and the family settled above a church in the Humboldt Park neighborhood on the city's West Side.[1] She won a seat in the Illinois House in 2018, becoming the first Guatemalan-American in the state legislature, and the 3rd district's congressional seat in 2022. The district covers northwest Chicago and its inner suburbs and was 27.7% foreign-born as of 2024.[2]

The record

Ramirez sits on the left of the House. Her DW-NOMINATE first-dimension score is −0.496, and her Heritage Action score is 0% for the current Congress.[3][4] She is a vice chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is frequently grouped with its furthest-left members.[1] She cosponsored Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

The personal stake

Ramirez's husband, Boris Hernandez, came from the same part of Guatemala as her parents. He arrived in 2000, at 14, after what she has said were four attempts to cross the border, and he was for years a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.[5] He received a green card in November 2024, roughly two years into her term.[5]

She has made that story central to her public identity. She describes her husband as a Dreamer watching the courts and the enforcement agencies, and she frames her legislative work as a defense of families like her own.[5]

The Melt ICE Act

The framing produced a bill. With Representative Yvette Clarke, Ramirez introduced the Melt ICE Act, which would cut off the funding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to detain and monitor immigrants and effectively dismantle the agency.[6] She argues that criminal enforcement would continue through other means, but that ICE, as she put it, "would go away."[6]

She has not hidden behind the legislative language. In January 2026, when the center-left group Third Way warned Democrats that campaigning to abolish ICE was a political mistake, Ramirez answered on the record: "Fine! Abolish ICE and DHS."[6] She has also called for the resignation and impeachment of the Homeland Security secretary.[6]

A bill named for the goal

Ramirez put the goal in the title. The Melt ICE Act would cut the funding the agency uses to detain and monitor immigrants and dissolve it as an institution. When Third Way warned her party that campaigning to abolish ICE was a mistake, she answered "Fine! Abolish ICE and DHS" on the record, and called for the Homeland Security secretary's impeachment. She grounds all of it in her own household. Her mother crossed the Rio Grande while pregnant with her. Her husband spent years as a DACA recipient before his 2024 green card. The bill is the family story turned into legislation.

Illinois's 3rd district, 27.7% foreign-born, drawn through immigrant northwest Chicago, elected the author of a bill to defund the agencies that enforce the border.

Sources

  1. Delia Ramirez, biography and Progressive Caucus role; WTTW, "Pregnant mom crossed the Rio Grande to give her child a better life" - born in Chicago in 1983 to Guatemalan immigrants; her mother's border crossing; first Guatemalan-American in the Illinois legislature; Progressive Caucus vice chair
  2. Data USA, Congressional District 3, Illinois (American Community Survey) - 27.7% foreign-born as of 2024
  3. DW-NOMINATE first-dimension scores, voteview.com - Delia Ramirez −0.496
  4. Heritage Action Scorecard, 119th Congress - Delia Ramirez 0%
  5. Rolling Stone, "Delia Ramirez is married to a Dreamer" - her husband Boris Hernandez, a former DACA recipient; his 2000 arrival and 2024 green card
  6. Chicago Sun-Times, "The abolish-ICE movement and Illinois Democrats" - "Fine! Abolish ICE and DHS"; the Melt ICE Act to defund the agency