| Friend, Congress is on the verge of voting for Trump Tax Cuts 2.0, and the cuts are horrific. Massive cuts to Medicaid. Cuts to food assistance, to education, student loan repayment assistance -- even the deduction for state and local taxes is being taken from us.(1,2,3) But Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is getting a 600% increase in funding.(4) ICE is breaking our due process laws, illegally arresting residents with permanent status while deporting others, denying them of their right to an attorney and their day in court. The last thing we should do is boost its budget by billions of dollars.
With 10 million people living in California who were born outside the United States, immigrants make up a huge part of our communities and our economy.(5) These are our friends and neighbors, and ICE is treating them inhumanely. People who are leading quiet lives are being deported to prison in El Salvador or to detention centers hundreds of miles from where they live. The head of ICE, Todd Lyons, hasn’t even been confirmed by the Senate, and he is continually breaking the law. We can’t reward that action with a 600% budget increase! Already, we’ve seen how far Trump’s lawlessness is willing to go. In April, his administration orchestrated ICE’s public arrest of a sitting judge in Milwaukee -- turning it into a media spectacle designed to intimidate the judiciary and break the system of checks and balances.(6) We need to send a strong message to Congress to rein ICE in, not give it a blank check. Thank you for being in the fight! –Irene, along with Annie, Angela, Isidra, Cecilia, Jen, and Lindsay (the Courage team)
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