Washington, D.C. – This week our country has mourned the brutal killings of our neighbors Renee Nicole Good, Alex Pretti, Keith Porter and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, as well as the over 30 deaths in immigration detention just last year and the 6 more deaths that began 2026. At the same time, Congress is debating what accountability measures and guardrails to put in place as the federal government’s enforcement machine escalates its violence and constitutional violations in plain sight.
Tomorrow night, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a Department of Homeland Security’s funding bill that would surge even more taxpayer dollars into ICE and its billionaire corporate colluders like Palantir, giving the agency $400 million more in taxpayer funding. This is on top of the already $170 billion in funding appropriated in the Big Ugly Bill last year.
All the while, Congress stripped $1 trillion in health care, putting millions of working people on the brink of survival, struggling every day to afford housing, food, health care, childcare and more. It is time for Congress to put working people first.
Ahead of tomorrow’s anticipated Senate vote, United We Dream, Make the Road States, and CHIRLA released the following statement:
“This moment demands Congress lead with moral clarity and fight to protect the lives of working people, full-stop. It has been clear for decades that millions of immigrants who help power this country need more than empty promises; they need permanent protections and that can only mean a pathway to citizenship.
Tomorrow night, the American people will be watching. As U.S. citizens and immigrants alike are killed in our cities, no elected official should be voting to send a dime more of taxpayer money to DHS and ICE.
This violence will only continue unfettered if Congress continues to choose to put the interests of billionaires, corporate donors, and the wealthiest top percent above the moms and dads, the teachers, nurses, students, and families who actually keep this country running.
Let this moment be a wake up call: accountability for DHS’ actions is only part of the solution. To meaningfully deliver in a moment when terror and force are taking over –when millions of working people have been forced by our government into a state of survival– Congress must swing bigger. We, the people, demand more: we demand permanent protections and a pathway to citizenship, living wages, and tax reforms that benefit working people, not billionaires!”
