Mr. Connor: I don’t know why anyone would expect anything else.
Democrats are just as responsible as the other side for the undercover agents terrorizing America’s streets. A quick summary.
obama
It’s always worth remembering that President Obama inherited ICE as an upstart agency, increasing its budget by 300%, establishing a nationwide detention center network, and expanding the “Safe Communities” enforcement program from 14 counties under Bush Jr. to all 3,181 jurisdictions across America https://t.co/eHEJy7UlH0
— Nate Baer (@NateB_Panic) March 16, 2025
biden
As always, Team Blue is positioning themselves as a little less bad. In this case, it would increase by 5 percent per year, up from 7 percent under Trump I. Under Trump 2.0, the ICE budget was at least tripled in funding.
Democratic lawmakers like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) have consistently voted in favor of increasing ICE funding, but they have issued strongly worded statements criticizing ICE in the past. Oddly enough, those strict histrionic characters didn’t work. Apart from shooting people, here’s a report from the ground in Minneapolis that shows the level of dystopia:
Someone I personally know who lives in Minneapolis posted this on Facebook a few hours ago.
This is not what orderly law enforcement looks like. No fees, no location information? How can citizens know they are receiving due process here? pic.twitter.com/y2pzvPq7iQ
— Liminal Warmth ❤️🔥 (@liminal_warmth) January 10, 2026
And as further evidence of the absurdity of our current moment, ICE once had a “Human Rights Violators and War Crimes” page that promised to “prevent known or suspected war criminals, persecutors, and human rights violators from entering the United States.”
Interestingly, when mass murderers like Bibi and Helicopter Chief Al Sharar come to town, the masked agents are nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, the human rights page is now outdated and includes a note at the top that reads:
To keep ICE.gov up-to-date, the archives contain content from previous administrations or contain outdated content. This information is archived and does not reflect current practices.
no doubt.
By Julia Conley, Common Dreams staff writer. Cross submitted by Common Dreams.
This week’s killing of Renee Good by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis comes as Republicans in Congress plan to introduce a Homeland Security spending bill in the House of Representatives to decide whether the agency that sends thousands of armed agents into communities across the country should receive increased funding — and progressive lawmakers are calling on Democrats to take advantage of the impending deadline for federal funding to reduce the department’s ability to wreak further havoc.
“I don’t understand how you would provide votes for a bill that funds a degree of depravity,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told CNN on Thursday. “We know a spending bill can’t solve everything, but we should look at ways to put common-sense limits on their ability to bring violence to our cities.”
But top Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, both appear to have little interest in discussing how their party can use the spending process as leverage to rein in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies participating in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Mr. Schumer and Mr. Jeffries harshly criticized the Trump administration’s assertion that the ICE officer who shot Mr. Good acted in self-defense, despite Wednesday’s shooting and mounting video evidence.
But Jeffries said Thursday he was focused on passing other spending bills that were ultimately approved by the House.
“We will clarify the liability structure at the appropriate time,” Jeffries told reporters.
Democrats are refusing to use their power in a spending fight to rein in ICE. They don’t care if you live or die. https://t.co/gFXhyfzA12
— Professor Zenkus (@anthonyzenkus) January 9, 2026
With Congress facing a Jan. 30 deadline to approve a government spending package and public disapproval of ICE at an all-time high, several lawmakers said this week that now is the “right time” for Democrats to rein in ICE by any means possible.
“A statement or letter alone is not enough; [continuing resolution] The January 31 deadline is our opportunity,” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Axios.
Schumer also declined to say whether Democrats intend to use the spending process as leverage to cut funding for ICE. ICE’s budget is set to grow to $170 billion following the passage of last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Republicans would need support from Democrats to pass the spending bill in the Senate, where they would need 60 votes.
Oh wow, the same people who failed to protect our health care by orchestrating a total fall to the Republican Party are also succumbing to the murder of Americans by Gestapo death squads, I love it https://t.co/q0xEWNsTOX
— Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) January 9, 2026
When asked if he supported abolishing ICE, the Senate majority leader simply said, “There are a lot of problems with ICE.” Support for the proposal has increased by 20 points among voters in just one year, according to a recent survey. The two leaders also would not commit to cutting the Homeland Security budget if Democrats regain a majority in Congress this year.
“It’s hard to be an opposition party without opposing the blatantly illegal and immoral things that the opposition is doing,” said Melanie D’Arrigo, executive director of the New York Health Campaign.
“People need to understand that ICE is an inherently bipartisan project that has seen funding increased and normalized across multiple Democratic administrations and majorities in Congress, and a few of them (not this one) are beginning to realize how stupid, weak, and misguided they were,” historian Mosik Temkin said while sharing a clip of Jeffries’ remarks to reporters about funding.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are among progressives calling on Democrats to cut funding to ICE, even if it means another government shutdown months after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history late last year, which began when Democrats refused to join Republicans in passing a spending bill that would allow the Affordable Care Act tax credits to expire. Eventually, some Senate Democrats caved in and the grant expired.
“We cannot continue to allow funding to these illegal killers,” Jayapal told Axios. “That’s who they are, this rogue force.”
Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent that Democrats should “absolutely” push for funding cuts.
“This Congress, this Republican Congress, while cutting Americans’ health care costs by $1 trillion and blowing up the ICE budget to $170 billion, has become one of America’s largest militias and has absolutely no responsibility for shooting Americans in the head,” she said.
On the Majority Report podcast, Emma Vigeland and Sam Soeder called on progressive Democrats to demand Schumer’s removal from office, given his refusal to take action to rein in ICE at a time of escalating violence in American society.
It’s time for Democrats to oust Chuck Schumer from leadership pic.twitter.com/ByWMJ495zb
— Majority Report (@majorityfm) January 9, 2026
“Change the news cycle and show that you are an opposition party,” Vigeland said. “Please ask for his removal.”
Soeder added that Schumer “has the ability to fight to defund DHS. He has the ability to do that, but he doesn’t want to. He’s intentionally running away from any influence he has.”
