Ocasio-Cortez supports ending the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. She compared the agency to the Patriot Act and to a paramilitary-like agency. In June 2018, she said she would support ending the agency and she would rather "create a pathway to citizenship for more immigrants through decriminalization." She later said that this does not mean ending all deportations. Two days before the primary election, she went to a protest at an ICE child-detention center in Tornillo, Texas. She was the only Democrat to vote against H.R. 648, a bill to fund and reopen the government, because it would give more federal money to ICE.