Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at an impromptu press conference in Washington DC on November 5, 2025.
Senate GOP Rejects Sanders Amendment to Give ICE's Extra $75 Billion to Medicaid
"Instead of funding a domestic army which breaks the Constitution every day, we should be putting that money to help the people of our country get the healthcare that they need," said the progressive senator.
US Sen. Bernie Sanders' amendment to repeal a $75 billion funding boost for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and direct that money toward Medicaid "to prevent hundreds of thousands of Americans from losing the healthcare they desperately need" was rejected by a slim majority of his colleagues on Friday.
The amendment—which failed 49-51—is one of seven Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to allow votes on before senators moved to an appropriations bill to avert another full-blown federal government shutdown, which passed 71-29. Although the White House is preparing for a shutdown because funding lapses at midnight, the House of Representatives is expected to send the spending bill to President Donald Trump's desk on Monday.
Sanders' (I-Vt.) amendment targeted $75 billion in ICE funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget package that congressional Republicans and Trump imposed last summer. In addition to giving a bunch of extra money to an agency that's violently raiding US cities as part of the president's mass deportation agenda, the OBBBA gave more tax cuts to the ultrarich while slashing social safety net programs such as Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income Americans.
"This country, under President Trump, every single day, is moving closer and closer toward an authoritarian society where we have a reckless and unbalanced president who wants more and more power in his own hands," Sanders said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, citing the Republican leader's contempt for Congress, the courts, the media, and more.
"And now, on top of all of that, what we are seeing is that one our great American cities—Minneapolis, Minnesota—is essentially being occupied by ICE," he continued. "What's going on in Minneapolis and has gone on in other cities is not what this country is about."
Sanders argued that "we do not want or need, and must never allow, federal agents—people paid by federal tax dollars—with masks on their face, knocking down doors; ignoring the Constitution; grabbing people; putting them into unmarked vans; taking 5-year-olds away from their parents; putting them in detention centers; shooting American citizens in cold blood."
In Minneapolis in recent weeks, ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good; an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan man named Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg; and two members of Customs and Border Protection fatally shot Alex Pretti. Meanwhile, Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy abducted by immigration agents in the city and sent with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, is now in poor health, according to his family.
ICE's actions in Minnesota and beyond have fueled calls for Congress to cut funding for or even abolish the agency—and the debate over Department of Homeland Security appropriations has delayed the broader spending package, leading to the looming but seemingly short-term government shutdown.
"What ICE has become is not an agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, what it has become is Trump's domestic army," Sanders said. "And I would hope that my conservative friends—people who year after year get up here and say: 'We believe in small government. Get the government off our backs. Let local communities make their own decision.'—finally stand up and say that in America, we do not need a domestic army terrorizing communities throughout this country."
"Instead of funding a domestic army which breaks the Constitution every day, we should be putting that money to help the people of our country get the healthcare that they need," declared the senator, a leading advocate of Medicare for All.
While the vote on Sanders' amendment was mostly along party lines—only Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) sided with the chamber's Democrats and both Independents—many Democrats joined most of the GOP in voting for the broader appropriations bills.
Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, was among the two dozen Democratic senators and four Republicans who voted against the package. He said that "I could not, in good conscience, vote for the federal funding deal," noting that "I promised the people of Vermont that I would not support another penny for ICE unless there were fundamental reforms to how that agency operates."
"While I voted against this bill because of the disastrous situation with ICE, it does include a number of important provisions that I successfully fought for," he highlighted. "As the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the Senate, I am proud that this legislation includes the largest increase in mandatory funding for community health centers in a decade, begins to address the massive shortage of doctors in America, takes on the greed of pharmacy benefit managers, makes it easier for the American people to receive low-cost generic drugs and expands pediatric cancer research."
Urgent. It's never been this bad.
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission from the outset was simple. To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It’s never been this bad out there. And it’s never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed and doing some of its best and most important work, the threats we face are intensifying. Right now, with just two days to go in our Spring Campaign, we're falling short of our make-or-break goal. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Can you make a gift right now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? There is no backup plan or rainy day fund. There is only you. —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
US Sen. Bernie Sanders' amendment to repeal a $75 billion funding boost for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and direct that money toward Medicaid "to prevent hundreds of thousands of Americans from losing the healthcare they desperately need" was rejected by a slim majority of his colleagues on Friday.
The amendment—which failed 49-51—is one of seven Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to allow votes on before senators moved to an appropriations bill to avert another full-blown federal government shutdown, which passed 71-29. Although the White House is preparing for a shutdown because funding lapses at midnight, the House of Representatives is expected to send the spending bill to President Donald Trump's desk on Monday.
Sanders' (I-Vt.) amendment targeted $75 billion in ICE funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget package that congressional Republicans and Trump imposed last summer. In addition to giving a bunch of extra money to an agency that's violently raiding US cities as part of the president's mass deportation agenda, the OBBBA gave more tax cuts to the ultrarich while slashing social safety net programs such as Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income Americans.
"This country, under President Trump, every single day, is moving closer and closer toward an authoritarian society where we have a reckless and unbalanced president who wants more and more power in his own hands," Sanders said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, citing the Republican leader's contempt for Congress, the courts, the media, and more.
"And now, on top of all of that, what we are seeing is that one our great American cities—Minneapolis, Minnesota—is essentially being occupied by ICE," he continued. "What's going on in Minneapolis and has gone on in other cities is not what this country is about."
Sanders argued that "we do not want or need, and must never allow, federal agents—people paid by federal tax dollars—with masks on their face, knocking down doors; ignoring the Constitution; grabbing people; putting them into unmarked vans; taking 5-year-olds away from their parents; putting them in detention centers; shooting American citizens in cold blood."
In Minneapolis in recent weeks, ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good; an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan man named Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg; and two members of Customs and Border Protection fatally shot Alex Pretti. Meanwhile, Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy abducted by immigration agents in the city and sent with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, is now in poor health, according to his family.
ICE's actions in Minnesota and beyond have fueled calls for Congress to cut funding for or even abolish the agency—and the debate over Department of Homeland Security appropriations has delayed the broader spending package, leading to the looming but seemingly short-term government shutdown.
"What ICE has become is not an agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, what it has become is Trump's domestic army," Sanders said. "And I would hope that my conservative friends—people who year after year get up here and say: 'We believe in small government. Get the government off our backs. Let local communities make their own decision.'—finally stand up and say that in America, we do not need a domestic army terrorizing communities throughout this country."
"Instead of funding a domestic army which breaks the Constitution every day, we should be putting that money to help the people of our country get the healthcare that they need," declared the senator, a leading advocate of Medicare for All.
While the vote on Sanders' amendment was mostly along party lines—only Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) sided with the chamber's Democrats and both Independents—many Democrats joined most of the GOP in voting for the broader appropriations bills.
Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, was among the two dozen Democratic senators and four Republicans who voted against the package. He said that "I could not, in good conscience, vote for the federal funding deal," noting that "I promised the people of Vermont that I would not support another penny for ICE unless there were fundamental reforms to how that agency operates."
"While I voted against this bill because of the disastrous situation with ICE, it does include a number of important provisions that I successfully fought for," he highlighted. "As the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the Senate, I am proud that this legislation includes the largest increase in mandatory funding for community health centers in a decade, begins to address the massive shortage of doctors in America, takes on the greed of pharmacy benefit managers, makes it easier for the American people to receive low-cost generic drugs and expands pediatric cancer research."
- Sanders Says 'Not Another Penny' for ICE Until Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller Are Gone ›
- Senate GOP Plans to Give ICE $10 Billion More as Masked Agents 'Murder People in Broad Daylight' ›
- Fury Grows Over Democrats Who Won't Back ICE Funding Freeze ›
- Sanders Secures Vote on His Amendment to Cut $75 Billion in ICE Funding and Redirect Those Funds to Medicaid ›
- Amid Funding Fight, Sanders Says Unmask ICE, Repeal $75 Billion Giveaway, and More ›
- Fresh Fury as Schumer, Jeffries Bend on Demand to Unmask ICE Agents in Funding Talks | Common Dreams ›
- Opinion | Unmasking ICE | Common Dreams ›
US Sen. Bernie Sanders' amendment to repeal a $75 billion funding boost for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and direct that money toward Medicaid "to prevent hundreds of thousands of Americans from losing the healthcare they desperately need" was rejected by a slim majority of his colleagues on Friday.
The amendment—which failed 49-51—is one of seven Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) agreed to allow votes on before senators moved to an appropriations bill to avert another full-blown federal government shutdown, which passed 71-29. Although the White House is preparing for a shutdown because funding lapses at midnight, the House of Representatives is expected to send the spending bill to President Donald Trump's desk on Monday.
Sanders' (I-Vt.) amendment targeted $75 billion in ICE funding included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget package that congressional Republicans and Trump imposed last summer. In addition to giving a bunch of extra money to an agency that's violently raiding US cities as part of the president's mass deportation agenda, the OBBBA gave more tax cuts to the ultrarich while slashing social safety net programs such as Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income Americans.
"This country, under President Trump, every single day, is moving closer and closer toward an authoritarian society where we have a reckless and unbalanced president who wants more and more power in his own hands," Sanders said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, citing the Republican leader's contempt for Congress, the courts, the media, and more.
"And now, on top of all of that, what we are seeing is that one our great American cities—Minneapolis, Minnesota—is essentially being occupied by ICE," he continued. "What's going on in Minneapolis and has gone on in other cities is not what this country is about."
Sanders argued that "we do not want or need, and must never allow, federal agents—people paid by federal tax dollars—with masks on their face, knocking down doors; ignoring the Constitution; grabbing people; putting them into unmarked vans; taking 5-year-olds away from their parents; putting them in detention centers; shooting American citizens in cold blood."
In Minneapolis in recent weeks, ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good; an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan man named Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg; and two members of Customs and Border Protection fatally shot Alex Pretti. Meanwhile, Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old boy abducted by immigration agents in the city and sent with his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, is now in poor health, according to his family.
ICE's actions in Minnesota and beyond have fueled calls for Congress to cut funding for or even abolish the agency—and the debate over Department of Homeland Security appropriations has delayed the broader spending package, leading to the looming but seemingly short-term government shutdown.
"What ICE has become is not an agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, what it has become is Trump's domestic army," Sanders said. "And I would hope that my conservative friends—people who year after year get up here and say: 'We believe in small government. Get the government off our backs. Let local communities make their own decision.'—finally stand up and say that in America, we do not need a domestic army terrorizing communities throughout this country."
"Instead of funding a domestic army which breaks the Constitution every day, we should be putting that money to help the people of our country get the healthcare that they need," declared the senator, a leading advocate of Medicare for All.
While the vote on Sanders' amendment was mostly along party lines—only Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) sided with the chamber's Democrats and both Independents—many Democrats joined most of the GOP in voting for the broader appropriations bills.
Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, was among the two dozen Democratic senators and four Republicans who voted against the package. He said that "I could not, in good conscience, vote for the federal funding deal," noting that "I promised the people of Vermont that I would not support another penny for ICE unless there were fundamental reforms to how that agency operates."
"While I voted against this bill because of the disastrous situation with ICE, it does include a number of important provisions that I successfully fought for," he highlighted. "As the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the Senate, I am proud that this legislation includes the largest increase in mandatory funding for community health centers in a decade, begins to address the massive shortage of doctors in America, takes on the greed of pharmacy benefit managers, makes it easier for the American people to receive low-cost generic drugs and expands pediatric cancer research."
- Sanders Says 'Not Another Penny' for ICE Until Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller Are Gone ›
- Senate GOP Plans to Give ICE $10 Billion More as Masked Agents 'Murder People in Broad Daylight' ›
- Fury Grows Over Democrats Who Won't Back ICE Funding Freeze ›
- Sanders Secures Vote on His Amendment to Cut $75 Billion in ICE Funding and Redirect Those Funds to Medicaid ›
- Amid Funding Fight, Sanders Says Unmask ICE, Repeal $75 Billion Giveaway, and More ›
- Fresh Fury as Schumer, Jeffries Bend on Demand to Unmask ICE Agents in Funding Talks | Common Dreams ›
- Opinion | Unmasking ICE | Common Dreams ›