Your Leverage Expires This Week — Use It, Shut It Down

I am writing to you as a constituent to urge you in the strongest possible terms to vote NO on any full-year appropriations bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security. More broadly, I am asking you to use every procedural tool at your disposal—including allowing the current continuing resolution for all federal agencies to expire without replacement—until meaningful constraints are placed on federal law enforcement actions that have resulted in deaths, serious injuries, and the disappearance of individuals from American soil. The abuses we are witnessing are not administrative overreach or policy disagreements. People are dying. People are being maimed. People are vanishing into a deportation pipeline with no meaningful due process, regardless of their legal status, regardless of whether they have committed any crime, and in at least two recent cases, regardless of whether they are American citizens. The physical safety of people on American soil is an existential question, and it demands an existential response. The power of the purse exists precisely for moments like this. The framers understood that the legislative branch needed leverage over an executive that exceeded its authority. You have that leverage now. Passing full-year appropriations is not a neutral act—it is an affirmative choice to fund these operations for the remainder of the fiscal year. Every vote to approve DHS funding under current conditions is a vote to let this continue. The recent deaths of two U.S. citizens are a direct consequence of that choice; they would not have been possible without the funding that prior votes provided. I am not naive about the political costs of letting funding lapse. I know the pressure you will face. But I also know that you were elected to represent me and to defend the Constitution. I am telling you directly: represent me by saying no. Defend the Constitution by using the one tool that cannot be vetoed or overruled. Please vote NO on any appropriations bill that includes DHS funding until binding, enforceable limits are placed on immigration enforcement actions. Use the leverage in your hands, that of your vote on any and all federal agency appropriations, to meet the existential weight of this moment. This is the moment that requires courage. I am asking you to have it. Thank you for your time and consideration. I am available to discuss this further at your convenience.