Washington, D.C. – Today, a group of Senators are negotiating an agreement to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with the insufficient exception of cutting $5 billion for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations. Despite growing demands by Americans nationwide to slash funding for both ICE and CBP, hold immigration agents accountable, and dramatically rein in their enforcement operations, the Senate proposal would, in large part, continue to significantly fund billions of dollars for ICE and fully fund Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in exchange for funding TSA, FEMA, CISA and the Coast Guard.
As negotiations continue, United We Dream Action released the following statement urging Congress to continue to push for accountability and no more funding:
“The demands from an overwhelming majority of Americans are clear: stop the violent, deadly, and unlawful abuses immigration agents are committing nationwide. While it goes without saying that TSA should be fully funded, this agreement will have little to no impact on meaningfully reining in the deadly violence and lawlessness of immigration agents on our streets and the abuses that continue to unfold inside immigration detention facilities.”
“This is not the moment for Congress to cede ground to a hollow gesture that continues to hold TSA agents’ paychecks and funding for agencies like FEMA hostage in exchange for doing nothing to actually cut ICE and CBP’s $170 billion slush fund. A genuine deal is one that provides substantial and permanent cuts to ICE and CBP, upholds due process and the constitution, and ends the blatant targeting of our neighbors. This is the moment for Congress to do what the American people are asking for. There is no deal worth accepting that gives immigration agents a free pass to carry out their brutal tactics with zero consequence.”