Pressroom

Washington, DC — Today the House ended the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown by passing the Senate approved FY 2026 DHS funding bill that zeroes out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other parts of the mass detention and deportation machine. At the same time, both chambers of Congress recently passed a budget resolution, paving the way to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection through yet another reconciliation process in the coming weeks. Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network, issued the following statement:

“Congress’s passage of a DHS funding bill that zeroes out annual appropriations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other parts of the mass detention and deportation machine is a testament to the power of everyday people to create change. The unwavering demands from people protesting on the streets, writing and calling their Members of Congress, having conversations with their friends and neighbors, and more pushed allies in Congress to hold firm on denying ICE and Border Patrol more funds to carry out their attacks on our communities. While the fight continues to hold these agencies accountable, today’s vote is a huge win for the people who have been saying no more to ICE and CBP cruelty and calling to abolish ICE.

This is the first time in ICE’s history that Congress has passed a bill that does not provide funding for the agency. This win pays federal workers now and serves as a mirror to the inflection point we have reached as a society over the growing opposition to ICE and Trump’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda. If not for the American people’s persistent demands that their elected leaders stop funding ICE, members of Congress would have undoubtedly rubber stamped ICE and CBP funding at the start of the year, just as they have done countless times before. But this time it was not a foregone conclusion, marking the changing tide: no more business as usual.

Still, DHS’s $170 billion dollar windfall from last summer’s reconciliation bill enables ICE and Border Patrol to continue eroding community safety, and Republicans are vying for up to an additional $140 billion in this year’s reconciliation process. Any elected leader who is serious about stopping the cruelty of ICE and Border Patrol and protecting our communities must act to prevent any new funding, revoke funding from the previous reconciliation bill and redirect that money towards community needs, and refuse any additional funding in the next annual appropriations process.

People are dying in ICE detention at a horrifying and record-breaking rate while ICE agents are tearing families apart and shooting people on the streets, making people less safe, and causing chaos wherever they go. ICE is operating the largest federal law enforcement agency in the US with the largest immigrant detention system in the world due to unprecedented funding at a cost to all Americans. People from coast to coast continue to be clear and demand their Members of Congress: No new funding for ICE and repeal the billions that they were given last summer. No more abuse and death at the hands of ICE and no more ICE funding while people lose health care, struggle to pay rent and kids go hungry. We demand an end to the ICE age.”

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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.