John,
This week, the New Pennsylvania Project, alongside the affiliated organization New PA Project Education Fund, signed onto a joint statement with more than 120 Pennsylvania community organizations, unions, religious institutions, elected officials, and national networks, to call on U.S. Senators Fetterman and McCormick to block cloture and vote NO on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill.
The New PA Project Education Fund attended accountability events this week in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Erie. In a speech at the Philadelphia event, founding CEO, Kadida Kenner said to activists outside of Sen. John Fetterman’s office, “The Trump administration’s attempt to sow chaos, uncertainty and fear about our pending mid-term elections will not deter Pennsylvanians. Any attempts to negotiate ICE pulling out of Minnesota at the risk of our freedom to vote are unacceptable. Pennsylvanians will vote this November.”
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Photo credit: Peter Tobia
The proposed DHS funding bill would provide ICE with $400 million more for detention and $370 million more for enforcement, on top of the unprecedented $45 billion ICE already received through the 2024 reconciliation bill, which was funded by cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs.
Here is a snippet from the letter:
“As Pennsylvanians we are horrified by what we are witnessing across the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are escalating violence in our communities— every day we see agents operating with impunity, pulling refugees from their homes, breaking down doors and windows without warrants. This past Saturday, another community member- Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who sought to protect his neighbor- was killed by DHS agents in Minnesota. This marks the fourth brutal killing in recent weeks; like Pretti, Keith Porter, Renee Nicole Good and Silverio Villegas Gonzalez have also been killed by DHS agents in a shocking surge of deadly force. Fifty-three immigrants died in DHS custody last year– a year that counted more DHS deaths than any of the past twenty years. This includes Chaofeng Ge, 32, Fouad Saeed Abdulkadir, 46, who died at the Moshannon Valley Processing Center and Parady La, 46, who died at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia on January 9, 2026.
Meanwhile, the DHS press office has become a propaganda arm that deploys demonizing rhetoric, excuses violence and smears those seeking accountability as ‘domestic terrorists.’
Pennsylvanians are demanding that Congress stop enabling DHS’s abuses and not funnel more of our tax dollars into an agency that continues to harm our communities. Senator Fetterman and Senator McCormick use your power and don’t permit this violence and abuse of power to continue, vote NO in order to block cloture on the funding bill and remove the funding from DHS. Congress cannot give DHS more money without meaningful oversight over the agency terrorizing our communities. We warn that if this escalating use of force by DHS is not halted immediately, the consequences will be far reaching and severe.
We demand strong, principled leadership from you at this critical moment, nothing less will meet the gravity of what we are all facing– from Pennsylvania to Minnesota, and beyond.”
Together,
Team NPP
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The New Pennsylvania Project (NPP) is a voting rights organization with a year-round primary focus on voter registration, civic education, and mobilization. NPP centers historically disenfranchised and often neglected Black, Indigenous and other people of color, immigrant communities and the youth in our work. Through civic engagement, we ensure all eligible voters feel compelled to exercise their freedom to vote in the Commonwealth.
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