1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

DO NOT FUND MACHINERY OF ICE OR U.S. BORDER PATROL! Dear Senator, I am writing to demand that you vote against any continuing resolution or budget bill that continues to fund the immigration enforcement machinery of the Department of Homeland Security—specifically ICE and Border Patrol—in its current form. We have all watched untold brutality against people. In January 2026 alone, two U.S. citizens were killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Renée Good, an unarmed American citizen, was shot and killed by an ICE agent. Within hours, federal officials publicly branded her a “domestic terrorist,” even though video evidence contradicted the claim that she posed a lethal threat. Weeks later, Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents. Again, the federal government rushed to portray him as a violent actor before any independent investigation had occurred, even as witnesses and video footage contradicted that narrative. These are not isolated tragedies. They are the predictable result of an enforcement system that operates with extraordinary coercive power, minimal accountability, and an increasingly explicit political mandate to intimidate communities and suppress dissent When the federal government kills its own citizens, then immediately constructs narratives that blame the dead—despite contrary evidence—the issue is no longer immigration policy. It is the legitimacy of state violence in a democratic society. At this point, proposals for “reform,” “training,” or “procedural improvements” are a moral evasion. Continuing to fund ICE and Border Patrol without fundamental structural dismantling and reconstruction is equivalent to Congress authorizing a system that has demonstrated its capacity for lethal abuse. If preventing that outcome requires rejecting omnibus bills or triggering a temporary shutdown, so be it. The preservation of constitutional rights is more important than the preservation of bureaucratic continuity. History will not judge Congress by whether it kept the government open. It will judge Congress by whether it had the courage to withdraw funding from institutions that had crossed the line from law enforcement into political violence. I urge you to vote against any budget that perpetuates this system. Anything less is complicity.