John,

We’re still reeling from news of the murder of Alex Pretti over the weekend––a tragedy that compounds our grief and rage in the wake of the deaths of Renee Good, Keith Porter, and the dozens of people who have been killed in ICE custody since the beginning of 2025.¹

Finally, it seems some Senate Democrats are waking up to this horrific violence, saying they won’t provide the votes needed to pass the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill without changes to address ICE violence.² The bill must be voted on by the end of this week (midnight Friday) to avoid a government shutdown.³

Lawmakers' determination to fight back gives us hope, and we want to make sure their efforts are not watered down by weak compromises like allocating funding towards more ICE body cams––a measure repeatedly proposed by Democrats in Congress as an effective response to ICE violence.⁴

Call your Senators and demand they reject funding for murderous ICE agents, period. No weak reforms or compromises

TAKE ACTION

For years, lawmakers have used the ruse of bodycams and other supposed "accountability tools" to justify funneling more and more taxpayer dollars to violent law enforcement agencies. We don’t have to look any further than recent ICE murders⁵ (and years of research⁶) to know that body cams do absolutely nothing to prevent law enforcement violence. Instead, they increase ICE’s ability to surveil and intimidate immigrants and protestors. We need Senate members to stand up to this funding bill. We don’t need fake solutions and reforms that actually expand surveillance and ICE’s power.

Fight for the Future is in the process of sending a letter from civil society organizations to Senate offices as we speak, demanding they drop weak bodycam demands and focus on defunding ICE––but we know that what lawmakers care about most is hearing from constituents like you.  

Call your Senators now and tell them to vote NO on the DHS funding bill. No compromises.

CALL NOW

Remember, the funding bill is set to be voted on in the Senate before the end of the work week, so take 2 minutes to call your Senator’s office now—timing is everything.

Last week we drove more than 1,300 calls to House offices demanding the defunding of ICE, and even though the DHS funding bill advanced, we know Congress members were feeling intense heat—so much so that one Democrat was forced to apologize for voting for the bill.⁷ We can’t back down now.

Together,
Leila & the team at Fight

Footnotes:

1) The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jan/04/ice-2025-deaths-timeline

2) The American Prospect: https://prospect.org/2026/01/26/ice-trump-democrats-funding-department-homeland-security-alex-pretti-minnesota/

3) PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/funding-deal-begins-to-unravel-as-senate-democrats-vow-to-oppose-dhs-bill-over-alex-pretti-shooting-in-minnesota

4) Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/democrats-ice-reform-body-cameras

5) KSTP: https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/border-patrol-agents-involved-in-shooting-of-alex-pretti-were-wearing-body-cameras-dhs-says/

6) NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558832090/body-cam-study-shows-no-effect-on-police-use-of-force-or-citizen-complaints

7) Politico: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/01/26/congress/tom-suozzi-dhs-funding-vote-00746598