1. United States
2. Iowa
3. Letter

Here is your revised Resistbot letter, ready to copy and paste: RE: The Bill Has Come Due: Who Congress Is Really Funding — and Who It Is Leaving Behind I am one of your constituents, and I need you to understand something clearly before I tell you what I am asking of you. Every dollar that has been poured into ICE over the past year is a dollar that was taken from someone in this district who needed it. That is not rhetoric. That is the budget. And I need you to answer for it. Think about the people you represent. The neighbor who just lost Medicaid coverage because new paperwork requirements buried her in red tape she could not navigate. The family that skipped meals this month because their food assistance was cut. The senior who is rationing medication because healthcare costs keep climbing while the safety net keeps shrinking. These are your constituents. They live here. They vote. And while they are struggling, Congress just handed ICE the largest law enforcement budget in American history. That is a choice. And I need to know if it is yours. Here is what that choice looks like in numbers. ICE now has $85 billion at its disposal — nearly triple its budget from just a few years ago, making it the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the United States. Congress approved $75 billion in supplemental funding on top of ICE's existing $10 billion base budget. The Senate just voted this week to advance yet another $70 billion for ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years. At the same time, the same legislation that supercharged ICE cut $863 billion from Medicaid and $295 billion from SNAP food assistance over the next decade. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that 10.9 million Americans will lose their health insurance as a result. Work reporting requirements alone will cause 4.8 million people to lose Medicaid coverage — not because they failed to work, but because the red tape was designed to be impossible to navigate. I need you to hold both of those realities in your mind at the same time. $85 billion for ICE. 10.9 million Americans losing healthcare. That did not happen by accident. Someone voted for it. Now I need you to understand who is actually benefiting from this. Nearly 90 percent of people in ICE custody are held in facilities run by for-profit private prison corporations. At least 10 people have died in ICE detention already this year — nearly three times the death rate of the previous four years combined. And while those people are dying in for-profit facilities, the CEO of private prison company CoreCivic told his investors this year that never in their 42-year company history have they seen so much demand for their services. Private prison companies are thriving. Your constituents are losing their healthcare. That is who this policy serves — and it is not the people of this district. I also want to be clear about who is actually sitting in those detention facilities. The vast majority of people in ICE custody have no criminal record. Research consistently shows that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. This is not a public safety program. It is a mass detention program — funded by cutting the healthcare and food assistance of working Americans — that enriches private prison corporations while delivering no documented safety benefit to the communities paying for it. And when members of Congress have tried to check on the conditions inside these facilities, ICE has denied them access. Congress is being asked to write blank checks to an agency that will not let Congress see what it is doing with the money. That is not acceptable. And I need to know what you are going to do about it. As my elected representative I am holding you to the following: First, oppose any further ICE funding increases that do not include legally enforceable oversight, independent accountability measures, and guaranteed congressional access to detention facilities. If ICE will not open its doors to oversight, it does not deserve more money. Second, fight to restore the Medicaid and SNAP cuts that were made to finance this enforcement surge. The 10.9 million Americans who are losing healthcare because of this budget are real people. Many of them live in your district. They are watching what you do. Third, tell your constituents publicly and specifically where you stand. Not in a form letter. Not in talking points about border security. A real answer about whether you believe it is acceptable to strip healthcare from millions of Americans so that private prison companies can build more detention facilities. You represent the people of this district — not ICE, not CoreCivic, not GEO Group. The bill has come due, and the people paying it are your constituents. I expect a substantive response within 14 days. I will be sharing your answer — or your silence — publicly with my community.