DEMS: House Must Reject Funding Package Including DHS Funding
(WASHINGTON) – Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, led Committee Democrats in releasing a letter to Members of the House of Representatives urging them to vote AGAINST this week’s funding package which includes Department of Homeland Security funding:
We urge you to vote NO on the funding package, to include the Continuing Resolution funding DHS. Democrats must act now to demand real changes that protect our communities before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) receive another dollar in funding. This is what our constituents elected us to do – to hold ICE and this administration accountable when they fail to adhere to the Constitution or follow the law.
As a starting point, we must end the Federal occupation of Minneapolis immediately and prevent future militarization of other cities across the country. In any future operations, ICE must adhere to the Constitution and follow the law. ICE also must use only judicial warrants – not DHS-signed administrative ones – for its enforcement operations. These operations must be targeted, unlike ICE’s current dragnet approach, which puts all community members at risk. DHS law enforcement officers must be clearly identifiable and prohibited from hiding behind masks.
Racial profiling in immigration enforcement must stop. Sensitive locations – like schools, day cares, hospitals and churches – must be protected.
Congress must also rein in the sweeping surveillance systems DHS is using to crack down on protestors and the President’s political opponents.
The thousands of Federal law enforcement officers assisting ICE with immigration enforcement across the United States must return home and go back to their designated missions. This includes sending CBP personnel back to the border.
The Federal government must cooperate with State and local investigators in all deadly use of force investigations – including investigations into the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. And the Federal government must be barred from using mass deployments of law enforcement officers as a tool to coerce State and local officials into turning over voter rolls or complying with other unrelated demands.
We must claw back the blank check Republicans gave ICE and CBP in the One Big Ugly Bill. The money provided through the One Big Ugly Bill is sufficient to fund both agencies for years with few, if any, guardrails. This Administration has already used this funding to deny Members’ immediate access to detention facilities, in direct contrast to appropriations law. It is too dangerous to allow this money to continue to be spent unchecked.
Finally, Kristi Noem must go. She has repeatedly abused her power and violated her oath of office, endangering the security of the United States, its people, and our institutions of government.
Again, we urge you to vote NO on the funding package.
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