Friend, Across the country, millions of working families spent the past week worrying whether their SNAP benefits would continue and if they would be able to put food on the table. As of today, thanks to a lawsuit by 25 states, families may receive half of their typical payments – at least for now. While families across the country are told “there’s no money” for food, housing, and health care – there seems to always be room in the budget for ICE’s deportation machine. Supercharged by the 2025 Reconciliation Law, the Trump administration is funneling billions into ICE, a secret police force that disappears our immigrant neighbors and incites terror in our communities, including: $71 million for guns, chemical weapons, and explosives – a 600% increase in small arms spending from 2024 $6.5 million for anti-immigrant ads recruiting ICE agents nationwide $50,000 sign-on bonuses for new ICE agents $4.6 million for iris-scanning technology and $3.75 million for AI facial recognition – tools to surveil our communities And yes, in a country where families are going hungry, ICE spent over $28,000 on one drone to film protesters
These are more than line items in a budget – this is the blueprint for Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. Every day on social media and on the news, we witness the devastating consequences in real time. Parents trying to go to work or drop their kids off at school are being abducted in plain sight. Community members are stepping outside of their homes to witness masked agents shoving their neighbors into vans. Immigration agents are even attacking witnesses, using force and threats to stop them from recording these events. They don’t want a record of their actions, and that’s why we need our elected leaders to hold them accountable. When ICE attacks our communities with impunity and unlimited money, we are all less safe. We've drafted a message to your members of Congress demanding that they do everything in their power to hold ICE accountable – all you have to do is press send.
|
