For people who fight for Philadelphia’s beleaguered immigrant communities, what was true before Tuesday’s pivotal election is true now.
ICE agents still roam the streets. The agency is still hiring. More than 65,000 immigrants remain in detention, awaiting hearings or deportation.
Yet something else has changed dramatically.
The Democratic tide that surged across the nation on Tuesday has opened the possibility for change in the federal government’s approach to immigration enforcement, and in the use of fresh legislative power to protect vulnerable populations.
That includes steps on projects like a Senate bill to shield Haitians who lost Temporary Protected Status in July ― a measure Democrats suddenly have the votes to pass, once the new Congress is seated in January.
It also includes the ability of a Democratic Congress to impose oversight, with California Democrat Robert Garcia, projected to become chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, already announcing plans to investigate “abuses” by Homeland Security and ICE.
“People are fed up with … the dehumanization against our immigrant neighbors,” said Peter Pedemonti, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia. “This is the moment to build on the power of people who have had enough.”
It won’t be easy. The executive branch, in the form of President Donald Trump, holds huge sway over the nation’s immigration system. That includes not just the ability to set enforcement priorities but also control of the federal immigration courts, which are part of the executive, not the judiciary.
“President Trump will never stop fighting,” the White House said in a statement, asserting that attempts to “reverse the gains of his administration will meet the same fate as the radical Left’s previous attempts: failure.”
Asked on Thursday if ICE would change tactics as a result of the Democratic victories, a spokesperson for Homeland Security quoted DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: “Deportations will continue.”
“The election changes the politics around the administration’s immigration agenda more than its ability to carry it out,” said Morgan Bailey, a former deputy chief of staff at Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “The executive branch still sets enforcement policy, and the current Congress has approved multiyear funding for it.”
Democrats, she said, face a decision: How much political capital will they spend on immigration issues? Some members will make oversight a priority, but with voters concerned about affordability and economics, others will focus on issues that helped them win their elections.
It’s also true, she said, that the new Democratic majority gains the power to question those in charge ― through hearings, subpoenas, and scrutiny of how the billions of dollars allocated for enforcement are being spent.
“The [administration’s] priorities may stay the same while particular tactics are adjusted in response to Congressional oversight, public pressure, or court rulings,” said Bailey, now a partner at Mayer Brown, an international law firm with offices around the world. “The election does not decide that, but it changes the conditions under which those decisions get made.”
Shortly before the election, the Brookings Institution predicted that a blue-wave victory was unlikely to cause a major shift in ICE activities.
“Unfortunately, there might not be much change,” wrote Gabriel Sanchez, a senior fellow for governance studies. “The executive branch has a lot of power independent of Congress to enforce immigration. In fact it was through executive orders that President Trump expanded the reach of ICE on the first day of his second term.”
Congress’ main power in immigration is its oversight of the federal budget, which would ordinarily allow the House to curtail operations by cutting off funds. However, in both 2025 and 2026, he said, Congress appropriated nearly $240 billion for immigration purposes, more than enough to allow the Trump administration to continue its mass-deporation plans.
During the first 18 months of the president’s second term, DHS completed about 980,000 deportations ― a faster pace than under the Biden and first Trump administrations, though still below early-2000s levels, according to a new analysis by the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
“My fear is people think that this means more than it does for immigration, that everything is okay now,” said Rachel Rutter, executive director of Project Libertad, a Phoenixville-based agency that provides legal support to immigrant youths facing deportation. “I’m hopeful that Democrats will actually use their power to do something ― for once.”
For some who work in Philadelphia’s immigrant-advocacy groups, one of the sweetest election victories ― or defeats ― occurred 1,700 miles away, where Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was ousted after three terms.
They remember cold mornings outside 30th Street Station in late 2022, when Abbott sent buses carrying dozens of undocumented immigrants to Philadelphia, forcing local groups and city officials to respond.
The governor included Philadelphia among four cities he targeted as drop-off points, sending more than 13,300 immigrants from the U.S.-Mexico line to Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and Washington.
He said sanctuary cities should feel the pain of his state’s overwhelmed border communities. Advocates here called the busing a cheap political stunt that sought to harm and disrupt.
“Today, ICE is going to be back in the neighborhoods,” Pedemonti said. “Immigrant communities all over Philly are still going to be waking up to the fear of ICE. We need Congress to feel that immediately and urgently.”
Immigrants and their allies have been organizing against ICE during the last two years and for years before, he said, and that work will continue even after Democrats are seated.
“The key is how do we build on this moment, to push back,” Pedemonti said. “We need to claim that victory, understand that it’s part of the bigger fight, and keep going.”