1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to vote against the Department of Homeland Security funding bill and support efforts to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The recent fatal shooting of Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman and U.S. citizen, by an ICE officer demonstrates that this agency operates without adequate accountability or oversight. House Democratic leadership, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, voted against the DHS funding bill despite DeLauro being a lead negotiator. Jeffries stated that "ICE is out of control and operating, in far too many ways, in a lawless fashion," accusing the agency of "using taxpayer dollars to inflict brutality on the American people." I share this assessment completely. The modest reforms included in the current funding package are insufficient. While the bill includes $20 million for body cameras and cuts to enforcement operations, these guardrails do not address the fundamental problem of an agency that has repeatedly violated civil liberties and human rights. ICE's aggressive operations in Minneapolis and other cities show that incremental reforms cannot fix a broken system. I support legislation like the MELT ICE Act introduced by Rep. Delia Ramirez, which would end DHS funding to detain or monitor immigrants and redirect those resources to health care, housing, and social services. This approach would better serve our communities by investing in programs that actually improve public safety and wellbeing rather than funding an agency that terrorizes immigrant families and, as we have seen, endangers U.S. citizens. Our immigration system is broken, but the solution is not more enforcement funding. The solution is accountability, humanity, and a complete reimagining of how we approach immigration. I urge you to vote against any funding bill that continues to empower ICE without fundamental reform.