Pressroom

Washington, DC — In response to the results of the midterm election, Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:

“Last night, people rejected the MAGA agenda decisively. A repudiation of the scapegoating of immigrants for the failures of the federal government. A repudiation of ICE chaos, death and destruction wherever they go. A repudiation of ICE’s budget and funding for wars abroad at the expense of Medicaid and other critical programs people depend on. Rather, the results of the election is the story of people taking to the streets to protect and support their family members, neighbors, and communities to demand ‘no more ICE deaths and abuse,’ block warehouse detention, and fight for our democracy.

Since August 2025, Congress has given ICE more than $113 billion, more than 10 times the agency’s typical annual budget. While Congress bankrolled a never-before-seen ICE budget that meant abuse, death, and the loss of community safety, Americans were struggling to buy groceries, see a doctor, and fill up their gas tanks. The most meaningful and immediate action that Congress can now take is to use its power of the purse to:

• Claw back every single remaining penny of the more than $240 billion that has been appropriated to ICE and Border Patrol through budget reconciliation since 2025
• Zero out ICE funding in any upcoming fiscal year budget negotiations, including any Continuing Resolutions or Fiscal Year 2027 budget bill

Locally, with major wins in Texas, Wisconsin, and other states, state elected officials have an opportunity to limit ICE’s reach by ending harmful ICE/police collaboration programs that fuel the deportation machine.

Across the country, people continue to demand: 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 a new reality where no matter where someone was born or how they arrived in the United States, our government values their lives and treats them with dignity and respect. We demand a new reality where every person has the right to move and live freely, in community with their family, without fear of being separated from their loved ones or displaced from their home. We demand a new reality where our elected officials invest our tax dollars in programs that build strong families and communities by supporting critical education, housing, and health care programs. And we demand a new reality where members of Congress with a mandate for change decisively defund ICE, get ICE out of communities, and shut down ICE detention centers for good. 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.