Rep. Grijalva Statement Following the Passage of DHS Funding Bill
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Representative Adelita S. Grijalva released the following statement today after voting against an annual appropriations package funding the Department of Homeland Security, which includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The package dramatically expands funding for ICE while weakening oversight and accountability. Congress has already provided ICE $45 billion through the 2025 Big Ugly Law – by far the largest appropriation the agency has ever received. The bill passed by the House today further slashes or eliminates key oversight offices, including the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Immigration Detention Ombudsman, and the Family Reunification Task Force, while failing to impose basic safeguards on ICE operations.
You can watch her statement here and read it below:
Congress has failed in its most basic duty to protect the American people. I’m not talking about protection from any foreign adversary – I’m talking about protection from our own government agencies.
An agency that raids humanitarian aid camps and enters homes without judicial warrants.
That uses five-year old children as bait to arrest their relatives.
That pepper-sprays journalists and peaceful protestors at a whim.
Unfortunately, ICE’s campaign of terror is not new for so many immigrant communities in my home state of Arizona. In 2010, we became a testing ground for racial profiling with the passage of SB 1070 – the “show me your papers” law.
Congress has already given ICE 45 BILLION dollars through the 2025 reconciliation bill. Yet this legislation does nothing to ensure accountability.
It does not require agents to identify themselves.
It does not ban masks.
It does not limit firearms in civil immigration enforcement.
That is not oversight. That is a green light for continued terror carried out in the name of the federal government.
The House has failed. I urge the Senate to reject this bill. We must send a clear message that ICE must be dismantled and that Congress will not keep funding this rogue agency.