Why Democrats Must Block the ICE Funding Bill

Some fights are worth having no matter the outcome

Another day, another person killed by an ICE officer in an interaction that never should have happened—part of an operation that is making everyone in the Minneapolis area less safe.

The video of the shooting, shot from at least two angles, is circulating on social media. I will not link to it here, but it’s easy to find if you want to watch it for yourself (I understand why you wouldn’t).

Alex Jeffrey Pretti was recording ICE and CBP agents on his phone when they swarmed him, hit him with an object, and threw him to the ground. Amid the melee, several shots were fired, and Pretti lay dead in the street.

This is reportedly the third person killed by ICE since the killing of Renee Good, the unarmed woman who was trying to move her car when she was shot three times.

Trump officials, who cannot be believed, claim the man was armed and posed a mortal threat to the agents. It does appear he was armed and may have had a permit to carry the gun. Open carry is legal in Minnesota. The videos I have seen do not support the idea that he was trying to shoot ICE agents.

We also know that ICE tried to prevent local law enforcement from securing the scene and collecting evidence.

It’s safe to assume that, as with the man who shot Renee Good, there will be an investigation and no accountability.

More information may come out, shedding more light on what happened. But the simple truth is that none of this would have happened if Trump had not sent thousands of out-of-control, masked agents to terrorize people in an American city.

All of this comes after reports that ICE detained a five-year-old boy, kept him from his mother, and sent him to a notorious detention facility across the country.

Trump and ICE believe they are above the law—that they can do whatever they want to whomever they want with no consequences. They are acting with impunity because they have de facto immunity.

It’s easy to feel powerless. But we have power—and an opportunity to send a message next week.

Next week, the Senate will vote on a bill to fund ICE and the rest of the Department of Homeland Security. If a bill is not passed by the end of the month, DHS will shut down.

I know it’s not easy, and it’s politically risky, but Democrats cannot fund ICE after what has happened in Minnesota in recent weeks.

They must come together to block the bill and send a message to Trump—and the country—that what ICE is doing cannot stand.

The State of Play

There has been a debate playing out somewhat under the radar about how Democrats should handle the DHS vote. Many Democrats have argued that they should use this moment to demand guardrails on ICE’s conduct, including a ban on masks and requirements for judicial warrants.

This is a much more complicated situation than the vote that led to a shutdown last fall. Here’s the state of play:

• The bill that funds ICE and DHS passed the House on Thursday, with seven Democrats voting yes.

• If Congress fails to pass a bill, the Department of Homeland Security will shut down. The rest of the government will not shut down. Congress has either passed—or is on the cusp of passing—bills to fund every agency other than DHS.

• Funding bills are subject to the filibuster, so to pass the bill, Republicans will need at least seven Democrats to vote with them.

• Blocking funding will not stop ICE from doing what it is doing in Minnesota and elsewhere. The president decides which government functions are essential and can continue during an agency shutdown. During the government shutdown in 2025, ICE continued to terrorize communities.

• Importantly, most of ICE’s funding is mandatory funding from the Big Beautiful/Ugly Bill and is not subject to the annual appropriations process, where Democrats have leverage.

• Additionally, one lesson of the last shutdown is that Republicans will not cave. If they wouldn’t cave on the Obamacare tax credits—which were supported by a majority of hardcore MAGA voters—it’s hard to see them agreeing to meaningful guardrails for ICE.

I know this is incredibly unsatisfying, but I want everyone to understand what Democrats can and can’t do—and what blocking the bill would actually mean.

Why Democrats Must Block the Bill

Masked, unidentified members of a paramilitary force loyal to the President of the United States have invaded and occupied an American city. The President’s flunkies in the Department of Justice are investigating the victims, not the shooters. They are also trying to prosecute local officials like the Minneapolis mayor and the governor of the state for the crime of trying to protect their citizens from this paramilitary force.

They have killed multiple people, and their violence and aggression are ramping up, not down.

I understand all the arguments against picking this fight. I know affordability and the economy are better issues than immigration and ICE. I know Trump, Stephen Miller, and J.D. Vance are licking their chops over this fight. I know how the right-wing media will portray Democrats as being on the side of criminals and drug traffickers. And I know Democrats are on a trajectory to win the House, and there are real downsides to picking a risky fight that may result in losing politically—and will almost certainly lose substantively.

I do not care.

Standing up and using every iota of your limited power is not just the right thing to do; it’s the righteous thing to do. I really don’t understand how someone can see what’s happening in Minnesota and around the country and do anything else. Someone has to step up and say, “Enough is enough”—to draw attention to what is happening in Minnesota and try to stop it.

I really don’t see any other option.

The Politics of the Fight

This is a moment that calls for moral leadership. You can’t call ICE fascists who are murdering Americans one day and then vote to fund them the next. That reinforces every negative image voters have of Democrats. They think we are weak, full of shit, and unwilling to back up our warnings about Trump with action that is commensurate with the gravity of those warnings. It’s one reason the Democratic Party has its lowest approval rating in history.

Talking about politics in moments like these can feel trite—and frankly more than a little gross. But we don’t just have a moral obligation to fight. We also have a moral obligation to win more power so that we can actually stop these horrors.

I won’t pretend the politics are easy, but I find the argument that we are destined to lose a fight over ICE funding to be based on nothing more than learned helplessness.

Trump is weak. His approval rating is well below where Biden’s was at the same point in 2021. Per Nate Silver’s model, Trump’s approval rating on immigration is down 8 points in the last six weeks.

In the recent New York Times/Siena poll, six in ten voters disapprove of ICE and think its actions have gone too far. Other polling shows that ICE’s approval rating has dropped 30 points in the last year.

I know Democrats have a lot of PTSD from how Trump weaponized the border in 2024. But this is not 2024, and Trump is in a much weaker position on his best issue than at any point in the last decade.

I imagine this won’t be an easy sell to Senate Democrats. Blocking the ICE bill depends on the votes of the Democrats who broke ranks to open the government last year. But fighting and losing is better than not fighting at all.