You Can Defund ICE In Two Weeks

The January 30th appropriations bill is a chance to reform the agency (or cut its budget).

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You may recall last year’s government shutdown. At 43 days it was the longest in history: Federal employees stayed home (or worked) without pay, SNAP recipients lost food (including mothers and kids), and school programs like Head Start were stopped.

The reason Senate Democrats forced the shutdown was because 21 million Americans were about to see (and are now seeing) their health insurance premiums doubling on average (which I covered in another Substack). But that shutdown ended without changes to healthcare when a handful of Democrats joined Republicans to pass a ‘continuing resolution’, a bill where Congress continues funding the government at last year’s levels (instead of setting new amounts).

A woman in Minneapolis being dragged from her car by ICE agents (New Yorker).

And when Congress does pass new spending levels for 2026, the spending is formally set by twelve (12) separate ‘appropriations’ bills (I’ve noted their respective status):

1. Agriculture, Rural Development, Food & Drug Admin (USDA, FDA) - passed by Congress, signed by Trump

2. Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) (Commerce Dept., DOJ, NASA, NSF) - passed the House only

3. Defense (Military, Intelligence Agencies) - no passage yet

4. Energy and Water Development (Energy Dept., Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation) - passed the House only

5. Financial Services and General Government (Treasury, Judiciary, White House) - passed the House only

6. Homeland Security (DHS agencies like CBP, ICE**, FEMA) - no passage yet

7. Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (National Parks, EPA, Indian Affairs) - passed the House only

8. Labor, Health and Human Services, Education (LHHS) (HHS, DOL, Dept. of Education, NIH) - no passage yet

9. Legislative Branch (Congress, Architect of the Capitol, GAO) - passed by Congress, signed by Trump

10. Military Construction, Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA) (VA, Military Construction projects) - passed by Congress, signed by Trump

11. State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (Dept. of State, USAID, Foreign Aid) - passed the House only

12. Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) (DOT, HUD) - no passage yet

As of today (January 15th), three appropriations bills (in bold) are law. Five others have passed the House only. And the remaining four — **including Homeland Security, which houses ICE — have not been passed by either chamber (House or Senate).

If those remaining nine appropriations bills aren’t passed by Congress and signed by Trump by January 30th, those parts of the government may shut down again.

There are two ways to avert this: One is for Congress to pass another continuing resolution (by January 30th) to keep funding those agencies at last year’s levels, while the other is for Congress and the president to pass/sign the bills by January 30th.

But when it comes to the Homeland Security (ICE) bill…maybe they shouldn’t?

Senate Democrats have leverage here. Appropriations bills can be filibustered — and you need 60 votes in the Senate to stop a filibuster. There are only 53 Republicans in the Senate, so they need seven votes from Democrats/Independents to overcome a filibuster and fund Homeland Security (and ICE) past January 30th.

In other words, Democrats can demand significant changes to ICE in exchange for their votes — or withhold their votes and cut off Homeland Security (and ICE’s) funding.

At that point ICE would run out of money past January 30th. Agents would likely have to work without pay, or stay home.

This is a chance for constituents to pressure Democratic (and Republican) senators to force changes and/or cuts to ICE. In the House, one Democratic member — Seth Moulton — has introduced a bill to return ICE’s funding to last year’s levels ($10B, down from $37.5B) and use the remaining $27.5B to fund health insurance subsidies (the ones that prompted the government shutdown).

So, if you’re mad about ICE, these next two weeks are your window to do something about it. The Senate is in session today and tomorrow (January 15th and 16th), then back again on January 26th.

Call your two senators and tell them to extract real changes to ICE, decrease its funding, or cut its funding entirely (if that’s what you want).

A California resident calling Adam Schiff.

The number to call is 202-224-3121. Call your own two senators only (and no more than once per day, per senator). If you’re leaving a VM then include your name, zip code, and contact info so staffers can verify you’re a constituent (and your call gets tallied).

Moments like this don’t happen often. When they do, grab them.

Here’s a script (in case you need):

Hi Senator [LAST NAME],

My name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m a(n) [YOUR STATE] resident. I’m calling to urge you to filibuster the upcoming Homeland Security appropriations bill unless [CHOOSE FROM THE FOLLOWING, ORDERED FROM MORE PLAUSIBLE TO LESS PLAUSIBLE — CAN CHOOSE MORE THAN ONE]:

1. There are significant changes to how ICE operates, so they aren’t behaving like lawless thugs

2. ICE’s funding bump from the One Big Beautiful Bill is erased and returned to last year’s levels of $10B annually (down from the larger $37.5B)

3. ICE is completely defunded and operations are paused until the agency can be vetted/reformed

4. ICE is shut down entirely

I’m sick of watching lawful citizens and noncitizens being arrested at their jobs, assaulted at peaceful protests, pulled out of their vehicles, blinded by munitions, and getting shot and killed. It’s un-American and we need qualified, well-trained officers to enforce only immigration law — not rogue, unidentified agents detaining, assaulting, shooting, and murdering people. If DHS and ICE won’t make these changes — and according to Secretary Noem, they won’t — Congress needs to step up and use its power in the Constitution to reign in, change, defund, or abolish ICE.

My name again is [YOUR NAME] and my contact info is [YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND/OR EMAIL]. My zip code is [YOUR ZIP CODE].

Thanks for listening and please do the right thing. Your voters are watching, I promise.

Again, if you found this article helpful, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You can also support me by ordering my book, What Does the Constitution Actually Say?, or its kids version. And consider sharing this article with someone who may appreciate it.