1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to vote against the current Department of Homeland Security funding bill unless meaningful restrictions are placed on how immigration officers conduct enforcement operations. The fatal shooting of Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who served veterans, by federal agents in Minneapolis on Saturday demonstrates that ICE is operating without adequate accountability or oversight. The current DHS funding package provides ICE with continued funding at current levels but includes none of the guardrails Democrats negotiated for enforcement operations. This comes on top of the $170 billion one-time infusion Republicans already passed for immigration enforcement, meaning ICE will have access to massive resources even if DHS funding lapses. Without restrictions on how these funds are used, we are funding undertrained, combative federal agents to operate on our streets with no accountability. The deadline to avert a government shutdown is Friday at midnight, but passing a flawed bill under time pressure is worse than taking the time to get it right. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has correctly called this incident appalling and unacceptable. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, Tim Kaine, Ruben Gallego, Mark Kelly, Mark Warner, Brian Schatz, and Chris Murphy have all announced opposition to the current package, and Senator Patty Murray, who negotiated the funding package, has called the Minneapolis incident an execution demanding investigation and accountability. I understand the non-DHS portions of this appropriations package include important funding for child care, mental health, housing assistance, and Pell Grants. These programs deserve support, but not at the cost of funding an immigration enforcement agency that operates without basic safeguards. I urge you to vote no on this package and demand that DHS funding be decoupled and addressed separately with proper enforcement guardrails in place.