If Democrats win back a House majority in this year's midterm election, Seattle Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is vowing to pursue accountability for President Donald Trump's aggressive and increasingly unpopular mass deportation campaign.

That includes impeaching Cabinet officials like DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, conducting oversight hearings and opening potential criminal investigations — and dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

First we have to haul everybody, all of the leaders of these agencies that have been flouting the law, we have got to haul them before us," Jayapal said in an interview with The Seattle Times. "We should impeach them. We should get rid of them in whatever way possible. And we should make them answer to the American people."

Jayapal and the rest of House Democrats have little power to do any of that now, as they're in the minority. Republicans also control the Senate and the White House.

But Jayapal serves as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, putting her in line, if Democrats take the majority, to chair the panel, which oversees immigration and refugee policy.

At a town hall this week in Seattle, Jayapal looked ahead to Democrats wielding their power if they retake the House to revamp the nation's immigration and border security regime.

"As soon as we get the gavels back, we have to dismantle DHS, ICE and CBP," she said, criticizing the estimated 73,000 people held in private, for-profit detention centers across the country.

The Washington State Republican Party attacked Jayapal for those comments in a post on X, saying people voted for Trump's deportation agenda, and accusing her of protecting "criminal illegals."

If Jayapal is unhappy, the state GOP added, she should "self-deport."

Jayapal is a U.S. citizen who immigrated to the U.S. from India to attend college when she was 16.

In the interview at her Seattle district office this week, Jayapal noted DHS was only created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, along with the Patriot Act and other measures aimed at preventing other attacks.

"It never existed before that. I think it has been a tremendous detriment to create this sprawling agency with very little accountability, tons of money and all these different functions that have been put there," she said.

Along with U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Bellevue, she has proposed a bill to rein in DHS. The proposal would end mandatory detention, phase out the use of private immigration jails and require that members of Congress be allowed to visit detention centers for unannounced inspections.

She also voted, like most Democrats, against a funding package to keep the federal government from a shutdown, saying she could not support giving "another cent" to DHS without major new guard rails.

Jayapal is now in her fifth term representing Washington's 7th Congressional District, centered on Seattle.

But like many Americans, she's had her eyes in recent weeks on Minnesota, where two people recently were killed by federal agents amid protests over an ICE crackdown.

She led a hearing for Congressional Democrats in St. Paul on Jan. 16, several days after the death of Renee Good, who was fatally shot in her car near an ICE office in Minneapolis.

More than two dozen Democratic lawmakers from 18 states attended the hearing, dubbed "Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump's Deadly Assault on Minnesota," including Washington's Emily Randall, D-Bremerton.

At the hearing, Jayapal and other Democrats heard from people affected by ICE's Minnesota crackdown. She sat at the hearing alongside U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, a Somali-born Muslim representative who Trump has repeatedly demonized along with other African immigrants.

Similar "shadow hearings" have been held in Chicago and Washington, D.C., as Jayapal tries to draw attention to how Trump's mass deportation agenda is affecting immigrants, many of whom don't have criminal records, as well as U.S. citizens who have been detained or asked to show papers.

She said the hearings are a way for Democrats to try to move the needle on public opinion while they lack the power to pass bills or set the agenda for congressional hearings. She and other Democrats have also spent their time at official Judiciary Committee hearings to talk about what's going on in Minnesota, including playing video of Good's shooting.

"I just decided I wasn't going to just wait around for them to do a hearing, or wait for us to get the gavels back," she said. "It's a way for us to keep the focus on the issues we want to talk about."

Last Saturday, less than three weeks after Good's death, a Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti after a struggle.

Noem and other Trump administration officials initially tried to portray Pretti as a domestic terrorist, falsely claiming he'd brandished a gun and intended to massacre law enforcement.

Jayapal has joined more than 150 House Democrats in signing onto a resolution to impeach Noem, sponsored by Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Illinois.

Recent polling shows public opinion has soured on Trump and his deportation tactics.

A Fox News poll this week found 59% of voters believe ICE's efforts to deport immigrants are "too aggressive," compared with 24% who said the agency's efforts were "just right" and 17% who said it wasn't aggressive enough.

Democrats' handling of immigration in 2024 hurt the party in the election and contributed to the defeat of former President Joe Biden.

But Jayapal said she believes there is more common ground on the subject than some believe and that Trump is "very vulnerable on this issue."

Jayapal said Democrats can propose a "humane immigration reform bill that actually gets at the root of the problem" and could draw widespread support.

For example, she said, most would support a path to citizenship for undocumented people married to U.S. citizens, and for people who have lived here for a decade without committing any crimes.

"Despite the crazy attacks on immigrants, it always amazes me the support for immigrants in this country," Jayapal said. "None of us want criminals, violent offenders to be in the country, right? They want a process that works ... If you could provide them with that, the support for immigrants and immigration is actually incredibly durable.

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