WASHINGTON — Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Deputy Chair Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) released the following statement opposing this week’s House Appropriations bill, which contains $28 billion in annual funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP):
“I will be joining my progressive House colleagues to vote no on this week’s appropriations bill, which provides tens of billions of dollars to Donald Trump’s ICE with no meaningful checks on its lawless and violent behavior. I call on all members of Congress to join us in opposing this legislation.
“Kristi Noem’s ICE is completely out of control. In my community of Minneapolis, a masked ICE officer fired three times at point blank range on Renee Good, a mother of three, killing her in her own vehicle as she attempted to turn away. Senior Trump Administration officials then smeared the victim as a domestic terrorist, lied about what happened, and deployed the Vice President of the United States to say her killer ‘deserves a debt of gratitude.’
“ICE is shooting people in broad daylight, beating up teenagers, spraying tear gas on peaceful protesters, ripping people out of their cars and homes without warrants, racially profiling people based on their accents, taking kids from schools, and abducting people and shipping them to faraway detention camps with brutal conditions and no due process.
“We say no to Congressional Republicans pushing legislation that provides $400 million more in ICE detention and $370 million more in ICE enforcement, on top of the unprecedented $75 billion that the agency received in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill as ICE terrorizes our communities—all paid for by cutting Americans’ health care and nutrition support.
“The Progressive Caucus is unified. I applaud our members for voting to adopt an official position to deny all funding to ICE’s enforcement actions until serious oversight, accountability and reforms are imposed, including an end to the violent occupation of American cities like Minneapolis. No more blank checks for a rogue agency that operates above the law, escalates violence, and erodes our most basic freedoms.”
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The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is made up of nearly 100 members standing up for progressive ideals in Washington and throughout the country. Since 1991, the CPC has advocated for progressive policies that prioritize working Americans over corporate interests. The CPC champions policies including comprehensive immigration reform, good-paying jobs, fair trade, universal health care, debt-free college, climate action, and a just foreign policy. The caucus is the leading voice calling for bold and sweeping solutions to the urgent crises facing this nation, including ending America’s broken for-profit health care system, raising American wages, eliminating political corruption, supporting the labor movement, and taking action to protect the planet for generations to come.
