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Amid Funding Fight, Sanders Says Unmask ICE, Repeal $75 Billion Giveaway, and More
"ICE is out of control, ignoring the law and our Constitution. Congress must vote NO on any additional funding for DHS," the senator argued as House progressives issued similar demands.
Jan 26, 2026
As the killing of another US citizen by immigration agents in Minnesota increases pressure on senators to reject the Department of Homeland Security funding bill advanced last week by nearly all Republicans and seven Democrats in the House of Representatives, Sen. Bernie Sanders published a clear list of demands on Monday.
"ICE is out of control, ignoring the law and our Constitution," Sanders (I-Vt.) said of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has conducted President Donald Trump's anti-migrant operations with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "Congress must vote NO on any additional funding for DHS."
Sanders' list targets not only DHS and its agencies, including CBP and ICE, but also the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which Trump has been widely accused of weaponizing against his opponents:
- Get ICE, CBP, and the rest of Trump's domestic army out of Minnesota and Maine NOW;
- No more warrantless arrests, no more stopping people based on race or because of the languages they speak;
- End qualified immunity for ICE and CBP agents to ensure Americans' constitutional rights are protected;
- Unmask ICE and CBP agents and require clear identification;
- End detentions and deportations of US citizens;
- Investigate and prosecute every single DHS officer who broke the law and require DOJ and DHS to cooperate with states and cities investigating immigration agents who broke the law;
- Repeal the $75 billion for ICE and the nearly $65 billion for CBP in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill and restore funding to healthcare; and
- Impose strict standards on all detention centers and hold them accountable for their human rights abuses.
The senator's demands largely align with the reported demands of Senate Democrats, with whom he caucuses, as well as those of House progressives.
"Senate Democrats will not allow the current DHS funding bill to move forward," the chamber's minority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), said in a Monday statement. "Senate Republicans have seen the same horrific footage that all Americans have watched of the blatant abuses of Americans by ICE in Minnesota."
Schumer argued that "the appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public. People should be safe from abuse by their own government."
"Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill," he continued, as the January 30 deadline to avert another federal government shutdown looms. "This is best course of action, and the American people are on our side."
Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of the American Prospect, reported that at a gathering late Sunday, the Senate Democratic Caucus agreed to block the $64.4 billion in DHS funding—including $10 billion for ICE and $18 billion for CBP—unless several conditions are met:
- An independent federal-state investigation, which includes Minnesota officials, of ICE murders and tactics;
- A ban on ICE use of face masks;
- A requirement of body cameras (there was $20 million in funding for body cameras in the current appropriations bill, but they are not mandatory);
- A ban on roving ICE patrols;
- A ban on the invented category of "administrative warrants" that bypass judges in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and
- An end to arrest quotas.
While Republicans have slim majorities in both chambers of Congress, most bills must win some Democratic support in order to get through the Senate, unlike in the House, where the DHS legislation passed in a 220-207 vote shortly before Pretti's killing.
Since the legal observer and nurse was killed in a CBP shooting on Saturday, at least one of the seven House Democrats who backed the bill has suggested he may vote differently in the future. Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) said Monday that "I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis."
"I hear the anger from many of my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE's unlawful behavior, and I must do a better job demonstrating that," Suozzi added. "The senseless and tragic murder of Alex Pretti underscores what happens when untrained federal agents operate without accountability."
Meanwhile, expecting they will have another vote, progressive leaders in the House are also discussing their demands.
"Senate Democrats say they won't vote for ICE funding without reforms. Good. Now, we must negotiate hard," said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who chairs the nearly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus.
As Casar outlined on social media Sunday, his five "nonnegotiable" demands are:
- ICE and CBP leave Minneapolis and stops terrorizing American cities;
- We get a full, independent investigation into the killings;
- No more detaining and deporting US citizens;
- The masks come off; and
- The mass arrest quotas and warrantless arrests end.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one of several Democrats expected to consider a 2028 presidential run, on Sunday issued a slightly longer list that included the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and US Attorney General Pam Bondi:
- Vote no on DHS funding bill;
- Repeal the multiyear $75 billion funding for ICE;
- End qualified immunity for ICE agents;
- Investigate and prosecute every single ICE agent who broke the law;
- Impeach Noem and Bondi;
- End the Kavanaugh stops with racial profiling and end the militarization of ICE;
- Codify a use of force standard so courts can enforce the law against rogue ICE agents; and
- Tear down and replace ICE with an agency that has oversight.
"Congress is not powerless. Democrats must unify around an actual agenda," Khanna argued. "Trump is engaged in the SYSTEMATIC destruction of the rule of law."
"Only if Congress fights with every legal tool at our disposal including lawsuits in the courts, like we are doing with the Epstein files, can we stop this madness," said the congressman, who's led the fight for unsealing federal documents related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alongside the only Republican who opposed the DHS bill last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.).
"We owe that to nurse Pretti," Khanna added, "and the hundreds of thousands on the streets risking their lives to stand up for our freedoms."
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Democrats Aim to Make GOP Pay as 'Angry' Voters See Health Insurance Premiums Soar
"Republican politicians who cut healthcare to pay for more billionaire tax cuts, or to increase profits for their corporate donors, are selling out working families," said Rep. Greg Casar.
Jan 02, 2026
The enhanced subsidies for people who buy their health insurance through exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act have officially expired, and Democratic lawmakers are ready to make sure voters know whom to blame going into the midterm elections.
Politico reported Friday that while Democrats in Congress are still pushing their Republican colleagues to allow a vote on renewing the enhanced subsidies, they have mostly settled on a political strategy of going scorched-earth on the GOP for letting them expire in the first place.
Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) told Politico that Americans who see their monthly premiums skyrocket in the wake of the subsidies' expiration will take out their anger on the GOP.
"I think the public’s angry," Bera said. "So I think they will blame the party in charge."
Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.) emphasized that the huge spikes Americans will see in their monthly premiums will help Democrats make the case that President Donald Trump and Republicans have failed to tackle the affordability crisis in the US.
“It’s part of the top issue, which is cost of living—whether it’s groceries, gas, housing, energy costs,” said Deluzio. “Healthcare seems to be top of mind as something that Congress can actually do to bring down the costs."
In a Friday social media post, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) also piled on and hammered the GOP for inaction on healthcare.
"Healthcare is a human right, not a bargaining chip," he wrote. "Republican politicians who cut healthcare to pay for more billionaire tax cuts, or to increase profits for their corporate donors, are selling out working families."
And its not just Democrats raising alarms about the expired subsidies, as Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said in an interview with BBC that was "pissed for the American people" about his party not holding a vote on renewing them.
"Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to their constituents," said Lawler. "You know what is funny? Three-quarters of people on Obamacare are in states Donald Trump won."
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Trump Rebuked by Federal Ruling Against Unlawful Racial Gerrymandering in Texas
“The Trump-Abbott maps are clearly illegal, and I’m glad these judges have blocked them,” said Rep. Greg Casar.
Nov 18, 2025
In a direct rebuke to President Donald Trump's hopes that mid-decade redistricting in key states could help Republicans retain control of Congress in next year's midterm elections, a federal court Tuesday ordered Texas to halt the use of its new congressional maps, redrawn earlier this year as part of a GOP effort to maximize its advantage in the Lone Star State.
The unprecedented mid-decade power grab was expected to net Republicans an extra five seats in the House, which, in tandem with other redistricting efforts in Missouri and North Carolina, may have proven critical in their efforts to blunt a blue wave by Democrats in next year's midterms.
But those efforts ran into an unexpected obstacle when Tuesday's 2-1 ruling by a panel of three federal judges in Texas determined the maps were "racially gerrymandered," disempowering nonwhite voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). With a preliminary injunction, the court ordered the state to instead rely on the boundaries it drew in 2021.
In the majority opinion, District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote that while "politics played a role" in Trump's request for Texas to redraw its maps, the White House explicitly "reframed its request as a demand to redistrict congressional seats based on their racial makeup."
Specifically, Brown's decision cited a claim made in a letter to Texas officials from Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, that the existence of four "coalition districts," where no racial group had a 50% majority, in the 2021 map, was "unconstitutional." The DOJ threatened legal action against Texas if it did not immediately move to redraw these districts, which it promptly did at the direction of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
This is despite the fact that, as Brown points out, "attorneys employed by the Texas Attorney General—who professes to be a political ally of the Trump Administration—describe the DOJ letter as 'legally unsound,' 'baseless,' 'erroneous,' 'ham-fisted,' and 'a mess.'"
"The governor explicitly directed the legislature to draw a new US House map to resolve DOJ’s concerns," Brown wrote. "In other words, the governor explicitly directed the legislature to redistrict based on race. In press appearances, the governor plainly and expressly disavowed any partisan objective and instead repeatedly stated that his goal was to eliminate coalition districts and create new majority-Hispanic districts."
"The legislature adopted those racial objectives," he continued. "The redistricting bill’s sponsors made numerous statements suggesting that they had intentionally manipulated the districts’ lines to create more majority-Hispanic and majority-Black districts. The bill’s sponsors’ statements suggest they adopted those changes because such a map would be an easier sell than a purely partisan one."
Republicans will almost certainly appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court. But as the Texas Tribune points out, "time is short," as "candidates only have until December 8 to file for the upcoming election," which means that the district lines must be determined before then.
Chad Dunn, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said: "It seems they’d have a limited chance of success at the Supreme Court because the evidence is so overwhelming. Everyone involved said they were drawing the lines on the basis of race. I don’t see how the Supreme Court sets that aside.”
The Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority has signaled that it intends to strike down Section 2 of the VRA entirely. But that case is currently scheduled for early next year and could not be brought onto the shadow docket in time to override the ruling blocking the Texas map for 2026.
While it could have major implications for future elections, likely allowing the GOP to net over a dozen additional seats, in the near term, Trump's gambit for aggressive racial gerrymandering may blow up in his and his party's face---at least temporarily.
Texas' maps kicked off a retaliatory gerrymandering push by Democrats to redraw maps to their advantage in blue states. That effort culminated in California voters' overwhelming passage earlier this month of Proposition 50, which overrode the state's independent redistricting commission and allowed the state legislature to draw maps that handed Democrats an additional five seats. Similar efforts may soon be underway in New York and Virginia.
With the cushion provided by Texas suddenly yanked away, Democrats now appear to be the clear winners of the gerrymandering war if things stand as they are. Instead of gaining the GOP five extra seats, Trump's gambit could end up costing it five.
"Today’s ruling is a rebuke of Texas Republicans who caved to Donald Trump and trampled the voting rights of their constituents," said Adrian Shelley, the Texas director of Public Citizen. "Gov. Abbott and his allies in the Legislature have forgotten their independent streak as Texans. Perhaps they can find the courage that Republicans in a few other states have to tell the president no.”
Meanwhile, Texas Democrats previously at risk of being gerrymandered out of their seats, rejoiced in the wake of Tuesday's ruling.
This includes Austin Reps. Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett, who, in anticipation of seeing their districts smushed into one, have spent the past several months engaged in a sort of shadow primary, which resulted in Doggett saying he'd retire if the maps were upheld. If Tuesday's ruling holds, both of their districts would remain intact.
"The Trump Abbott maps are clearly illegal, and I’m glad these judges have blocked them," Casar said after Tuesday's ruling. "If this decision stands, I look forward to running for reelection in my current district."
While he celebrated the ruling, he said, "no matter what, we must fight to pass a federal ban on gerrymandering once and for all."
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