1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I write to you tonight very concerned about how 144 House Democrats just voted with Republicans to hand ICE and DHS sweeping new surveillance powers over American citizens — buried inside a bill marketed as fighting shoplifting. CORCA creates a new national intelligence hub run by an ICE appointee, empowered to collect personal data from retailers on anyone accused of organized retail theft. No definition of what counts. No limits on what data can be collected. No restrictions on who DHS can share it with. No meaningful oversight of any kind. Retailers who cooperate get federal grants. Retailers who don't — don't. That's not voluntary. That's coercion with a smile. It now moves to the Senate, where Klobuchar, Mark Kelly, and Cortez Masto are already on board. The bill is called the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act. What it actually does is build a backdoor surveillance system with no guardrails, controlled by the same agency that operates with no meaningful civilian oversight and has repeatedly been found to violate constitutional rights. I urge you to vote NO and to convince your colleagues to do the same.