Hey John,

I wanted to make sure you’re up to speed on what’s next in the fight against ICE surveillance. Now is a critical time to keep up the pressure on Democratic lawmakers to block all funding for ICE and reject harmful compromises:

CALL NOW TO BLOCK ICE FUNDING

Here are the basics: You've flooded lawmakers’ offices with hundreds of calls demanding they block funding for ICE’s surveillance panopticon. That pressure helped block the immediate passage of ICE/DHS funding in the Senate, extending time for debate through February 13^th.

Great! Now, Democrats are using this extra time and leverage to weaken ICE’s funding and power as much as possible… right?

We wish. Instead, Dems are pushing a set of counterproductive “reforms” that threaten to entrench ICE’s surveillance empire even further. Among them are mandatory body cameras for every ICE agent, which would pile on even more surveillance tech,¹ funnel millions into the security industry,² and do nothing to curtail ICE’s power to kidnap and detain our neighbors.

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were recorded by their murderers—it did not stop the violence. Instead, it only encouraged Kristi Noem to roll out more bodycam surveillance in Minnesota using ICE’s existing budget (yes, they already have the money!).³

Nearly 30 tech justice and rights organization agree these reforms would do more harm than good.⁴ Seasoned anti-carceral organizers have been telling us for years that pouring more money into a violent system only makes the violence worse.⁵ It’s Democratic lawmakers who are still five steps behind, proposing we fork over even more cash to the administration executing these violent attacks.

We need to keep our eye on the ball: the problem with ICE is not that agents are undertrained, unmonitored, or masked. It is that ICE exists at all. Democrats must block all ICE funding until the agency is abolished. Call now and call again tomorrow to make sure Democrats hold the line against ICE funding, no compromises, no exceptions:

TAKE ACTION

Thanks for all you do,

Alex at Fight for the Future

Footnotes:

1. New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/technology/tech-ice-facial-recognition-palantir.html
2. Jacobin: https://jacobin.com/2026/01/democrats-ice-reform-body-cameras
3. Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-secretary-noem-homeland-security-37af4947057e64efee5e43a8f2e018bb
4. Coalition Letter: https://www.fightforthefuture.org/news/2026-01-28-body-cameras-are-a-hands-free-killing-tool-for-ice-coalition-urges-no-vote-on-funding-ice-package/

5. Critical Resistance: https://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/CR_abolitioniststeps_antiexpansion_2021_eng.pdf