House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on Wednesday that he would reject a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year over concerns that it did not sufficiently curb Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
The announcement came in a closed-door meeting with Democratic caucus members, following continued ICE violence in Minnesota as part of Operation Metro Surge.
“We’ve heard our members speak loudly that ICE isn’t doing enough, these reforms aren’t doing enough. This lawlessness has to stop,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) told reporters after the meeting on Wednesday. “They are only doing this because they can. They are only doing this because the president of the United States wants to use them to terrorize communities, to terrorize U.S. citizens.”
But, according to NBC News, Democratic leaders did not state they would whip a vote to push all members to follow their “no” vote. This leaves the door open for Democrats, many of whom are facing close elections this year, to vote in favor of the appropriation bill.
Lmao but tHe MidTeErMs bro
Democrats are okay with fascism, that’s all I see.
Not all, but I feel like Hakeem Jeffries being on the right side of this is just controlled opposition to make the Democrats look slightly less feckless on this issue.
They’re okay with what their constituents are okay with.
By constituents, I mean donors.
ICE cannot be reformed.
The pool of “talent” from which ICE hires is comprised entirely of the sort of people who would willingly apply to join ICE.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), a conservative who participated in negotiations with Republicans on the legislation as the lead Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, voiced support for the bill in the meeting,
A conservative Democrat huh? Well don’t know much about this guy, but already having a hard time believing a conservative running as a Democrat is somebody I should trust to have anyone’s interest in mind but his own. I wonder what are some other tidbits about him that might be relevant?
Jan 2026: Congressman Henry Cuellar expresses support for U.S. military action in Venezuela
Maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to judge a conservative Democrat who has every incentive to help Trump overthrow democracy, and it’s actually me who’s been wrong this whole time for supporting democracy. 🤷♀️
Or you know, fuck this guy, fuck Trump, and fuck all of his fascist enablers.
Fuck Henry Cuellar, he votes with Trump 95% of the time.
Fun story: when he first ran, it was against a very promising young progressive woman Jessica Cisneros who was intent on stopping the border wall disaster in her district, among many other progressive priorities.
Nancy Pelosi decided since Cuellar was more corpo friendly she would back him instead, and dumped millions of DNC money into his campaign so he could eke out a narrow win. Completely rat-fucked the primary, to basically elect a DINO Republican.
That’s fucked.
Most Democrats are conservatives. We only have like two progressives in Congress (Bernie, Warren).
Most Democrats are conservatives.
Yeah.
We only have like two progressives in Congress (Bernie, Warren).
They’re great, but I think we could definitely add some names to that list if you include the House. Off the top of my head there’s also AOC, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal, Mark Pocan, and Shri Thanedar.
Idk, I do give Nancy Pelosi some credit for reigning Trump in before he could do as much damage as he had planned during his first term (because a lot of the shit we’re seeing now was actually quietly set into place long before Project 2025). I genuinely wouldn’t define her as a conservative, but I guess it depends on how you define conservative.
There are a lot of shadowy industry people who dump money into both sides of politics to promote the policies that will make them more money, and hinder the policies that stand in their way, but they don’t really hold any sort of left/right political bias. It’s just about serving their immediate self interest. But the people I consider true conservatives aren’t just selfish. They truly see themselves as a dominant masterclass meant to keep their very strict heirarchies in place.
I definitely don’t think Pelosi is above helping a conservative policy advance if she’s instructed to do so by her wealthy donors, but this is because she has an incentive to gain from it in the short term. The willingness to always chase the short term incentive being dangled in front of them while ignoring the cliff they’re walking towards, is exactly what has allowed conservative policies to gain such a strong foothold in America. But, I don’t think Pelosi or (even most Republican voters) would really want to live in a conservative society where their position in that society has been predetermined in the conservative “natural” heirarchy.
Conservatives like to publicly focus on identity politics, but the truth behind their love of heirarchies is the fundamental conservative belief that some people (women, people of color, non-WASPs, and the entire working class) were born to be oppressed and exploited in a society dominated by elites. They use the state to enforce these rules, and protect themselves from competition, but they honestly believe they have been pre-ordained with a “natural” place at the top of the heirarchy.
Not to dismiss the long list of very atrocious things people like Pelosi, others in congress, and Republican voters have been willing to look the other way on, but I do honestly think many have been intentionally misled about identity politics, the “war on woke,” or police militarization and how it actually relates to their own self interest and place in that heirarchy. I also know there will always be a handful of people who are so stubbornly contrarian and narcissistic, they will literally cut off their nose to spite their face then offer it to the leopards to save them the trouble.
However, if you really forced the Edmund Burke and Heritage Foundation elite conservatives to candidly explain to America and the blue collar voters they pander to, how they view themselves and their role in society vs how they view those blue collar Republican voters, a much smaller percentage would be willingly supporting their own exploitation, or agreeing to help create an undemocratic society where any chance of social mobility for themselves or their children has been completely eliminated. Especially if you really got them to acknowledge what they hope to achieve by combining traditional anti-egalitarian conservative ideals about heirarchies with the dystopian Palantir tech fantasy.
Not only is your data your destiny, your destiny starts being collected and analyzed before you’re even born. Did your mom smoke when she was pregnant or work in a factory around dangerous chemicals? That’s probably why you did X instead of Y when you were 4, and now as an adult you’re ineligible for Z. You’re born poor because you’re meant to die poor. If that seems unfair it’s because that’s the fucking point. Anti-egalitarian societies are meant to be stacked against you unless you’re at the top.
If you could force these conservative “anti-elitists” to publicly acknowledge the kinds of things they discuss in their private clubs and annual conferences, I think more Americans would find it kind of suspicious that the same “anti-elitist” elites, with their ivy league degrees, so strongly discourage Americans from obtaining an education for themselves.
There’s a reason they don’t really expand on what they mean when they say “democracy” is incompatible with freedom, and a reason they code their attacks on equality with buzzwords like multiculturalism and DEI. It’s been same the race baiting argument for over 50 years. The Heritage Foundation went from attacking multiculturalism in the 70s and 80s to PC culture in the 90s to Wokeness and DEI in the last 10 years because they are relying on the people who put them in power, to embrace the “freedom” to participate in the heirarchy in exchange for their own exploitation. The “anti-elitist” elitists won’t just openly acknowledge that they are the untouchable overclass, because the quiet parts are always the things they don’t say out loud until they’re emboldened enough to do so. There’s also a reason Alex Karp recently referred to the “woke left and right,” when it comes to any critiques of Palantir. As long as you offer your blind loyalty, you can pretend to be part of the in-group who will be protected and rewarded when the overclass removes the last of your liberty.
Tldr: Whether the many realize it or not, traditional conservativism, anti-egalitarianism, and the heirarchies it depends on for exploitation and power, means only an elite few control the majority. They’re exclusionary by default regarding who actually gets to join the club, but they are very open minded when it comes to who can be exploited.
I do think Pelosi is willing to do the wrong thing for the right price, and has naively allowed her own exploitation by rationalizing many things that have ultimately enabled the current attack on democracy. I don’t think she is naive enough to believe she would ever be allowed a place at the top of a conservative heirarchy, but who knows, some people are legitimately that naive (i.e. “you may think I deserve to be wiped off the face of the earth, but at least we all agree on taxes.” … Good luck with that 🙃)
don’t forget Jayapal, Omar, Tlaib, and Pressley.
Not Warren she is also a conservative and fucking snake.
the bill doesn’t include “broader reforms proposed by Democrats, including preventing U.S. citizens from being detained or deported and preventing non-ICE personnel from conducting interior enforcement.
The bare minimum isn’t included and they’ll still vote for it. I’d like to congratulate Hakeem Jefferies on his performance as “leader” it almost looked like it was his real job
The bill doesn’t contain what is already the law. But we know ICE will just break the law anyway so does it really matter?
DeLauro acknowledged the bill would frustrate many Democratic lawmakers, but said it was necessary to fund numerous agencies, such as FEMA, the US Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. She also noted that ICE received $75 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, so if no appropriations legislation passed, ICE would still be able to function for years while other agencies would struggle.
I mean, those other agencies are already struggling no? And last I checked it seems like the Coast guard was being edged into serving on behalf of team neo Nazi, and FEMA isn’t actually giving aid after disasters.
Idk I get that this is again damned if you do damned if you don’t in terms of helping to destroy the government, but when you have a lawless tyrant doing whatever the fuck he wants anyway, why bother to give him your stamp of approval?
So good on Jefferies for doing this.👏 You and Schumer need to pressure the entire party to make this an issue their future hinges on (because it literally does, along with all of our futures)
The bill maintains funding for ICE at $10 billion. Still, it includes some guardrails, including allocating $20 million of the budget to body cameras for ICE and CBP officers, and reducing $115 million from ICE enforcement and removal operations. It also cuts Border Patrol funding by $1.8 billion and provides $20 million for mandated, independent oversight of detention facilities
According to House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the bill doesn’t include “broader reforms proposed by Democrats, including preventing U.S. citizens from being detained or deported and preventing non-ICE personnel from conducting interior enforcement.”
DeLauro acknowledged the bill would frustrate many Democratic lawmakers, but said it was necessary to fund numerous agencies, such as FEMA, the US Coast Guard, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. She also noted that ICE received $75 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, so if no appropriations legislation passed, ICE would still be able to function for years while other agencies would struggle.
But, according to NBC News, Democratic leaders did not state they would whip a vote to push all members to follow their “no” vote. This leaves the door open for Democrats, many of whom are facing close elections this year, to vote in favor of the appropriation bill.
Democracy is hemorrhaging, and these fucks are worried about elections and funding other agencies. They need to bring congress to a halt. They need to stop this madness. Do whatever is possible, by any means necessary, to disrupt DHS. This is terrorism, and they want to focus on their narrow elections? If they actually get something done, they will get their blue wave, in spades. What would motivate the base more than getting results? Get these traitors off of our streets.
We should remember, though, that the democrats are perfectly happy carrying on the mission of ICE and CBP. They just want it out of the media so they can focus on selling us out even more.
I can’t believe she argued that because they already have it an extra $75B they should just keep giving it more because it wouldn’t stop it.
To preface, i want ICE fully defunded.
That being said, this is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t. ICE already received that $75 billion which will allow them to operate for years. This $10 billion comes with some “restrictions” like body cameras, and reallocates some money towards oversight of holding facilities. Another chunk will need to go to other underfunded agencies like the Coast Guard, FEMA, and CIS.
Democratic leadership hasn’t indicated if they will whip house Dems into voting no, because it will depend on those running in tight districts.
The message needs to be sent via primaries. They should have never received that $75 billion in the first place.
They can do everything you say they need to do without funding ICE. None of it requires giving them more money. Or more accurately, they can stand for all of those things. They don’t control anything, but they can refuse to cooperate with the regime that is attacking their voters, the only segment that has majority support for ICE are Republicans.
The time to do that and have significant public support behind them, has passed. Like I said, they shouldn’t have passed that $75 billion in the first place and kept the government shut down until every item they wanted was included, AND they had the public support to do so!
Now? Republicans will hammer them for not funding FEMA when there’s a massive snow storm getting ready to hit 3/4 of the country, or whatever bullshit they’re scheming up this round. When other crap is loaded into a bill, their public support for not supporting it faulters, i wish this wasn’t the case.
I want Democrats to win, and i don’t think this is the battle to do so. Safe Dems can vocally opposed this all they want, but until we start seeing immigration polls swinging 20-30+ instead of 5-10, Southern Dems in tight races will continue playing that “Middle”.
Agreed, abolish ICE first and foremost then we can move onto something less important.
Are the democrats complete morons?
No, they’re just a different flavor of Republican.
is this rhetorical, or…?
Mostly.
They’ve got Bernie, who’s awesome. But other than that… I thoroughly do not understand.
Bernie caucuses with the Dems, but he is not a dem, he is a Vermont Progressive.
As Dems so often love to point out, Bernie is technically an Independent.
Then they all should be because their party is the worst run thing I’ve ever seen.
and I’ve watched the Conservative Party of Canada throw a 20 point lead last year.
Democrats are by and large Capitalists. Republicans are Capitalists. We have two Capitalist parties with ever so slightly different goals, none of which benefits us. Bernie is basically center. Once you understand Capitalism and how it must function and continually grow, you understand Democrats. They do not represent us.
Worse, they are controlled opposition
They are complices
Democrats colabos
As in france and everywhere, they always finish to cooperate with far right
They just follow their masters, not their voters.
Democratic leaders did not state they would whip a vote to push all members to follow their “no” vote.
It doesn’t matter if they try even…
Neoliberal control for the last decade was predicated on the “victory fund” and their willingness to cut off funding to an entire state party if reps from that state didn’t vote how they wanted.
Martin immediately started giving those funds back, and we’ve been in the largest reinvestment from the DNC to state parties for almost a year straight.
Shcumer and Jeffries are completely toothless, and I think we’ll see both of them start claiming they agree with progressives more now. Not because they agree with it or anything, they just know they’re powerless to obstruct it anymore, and would rather keep up the appearance that they matter so lobbyists keep bribing them.
If Dems don’t vote on this, then their mid-term impressions could suffer.
