1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to immediately move to claw back the $170 billion allocated to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection in H.R. 1. This massive funding increase, passed last July, has enabled escalating abuses while gutting programs that actually keep our communities safe. H.R. 1 made ICE the highest-funded US law enforcement agency, tripling its annual budget to over $73 billion over four years for immigration enforcement and detention activities. Meanwhile, the same bill slashed billions from Medicaid and SNAP, programs that millions of Americans depend on for healthcare and food security. This represents a fundamental misallocation of taxpayer dollars away from community welfare and toward enforcement activities that lack adequate oversight. Internal ICE data leaked to the CATO Institute late last year reveals the agency is not targeting dangerous criminals as claimed. The data shows that 73% of ICE detainees had no criminal conviction whatsoever, and only 5% had a violent criminal conviction. This directly contradicts the administration's narrative of arresting and deporting "the worst of the worst." Instead, ICE is detaining primarily nonviolent individuals and families. Critically, the $170 billion funding increase included no corresponding increases for immigration courts or services that protect detainees' due process and basic human rights. This has created an enforcement apparatus with massive resources but minimal accountability. Reports of ICE officers entering homes without judicial warrants, abusing detainees, and executing nonviolent protestors on video demonstrate the dangerous consequences of this unchecked expansion. Our tax dollars should support programs that strengthen communities, not fund an agency that terrorizes residents while providing no meaningful public safety benefit. I urge you to sponsor or co-sponsor legislation to claw back this $170 billion slush fund and redirect those resources to programs that actually serve constituents' needs.