Seven Democrats just voted to hand the Department of Homeland Security a fat funding check—right in the middle of ICE’s violent crackdown that killed a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis.
WHAT’S GOING ON: The House of Representatives passed a bill to fund DHS, and while the vast majority of Democrats voted against it, seven crossed the aisle to vote yes.
Those Democrats are:
- Don Davis (North Carolina)
- Tom Suozzi (New York)
- Henry Cuellar (Texas)
- Vicente Gonzalez (Texas)
- Laura Gillen (New York)
- Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Washington)
- Jared Golden (Maine).
The timing couldn’t be worse. This vote came as Democrats across the caucus were slamming ICE’s tactics following the killing of Renee Good during an arrest attempt in Minneapolis. A federal agent shot the Venezuelan immigrant dead. And these seven Democrats looked at that situation and said, “Yeah, here’s more money.”
THE DETAILS: According to The Independent, the appropriations bill includes $20 million for ICE body cameras—a token gesture that many Democrats argued doesn’t come close to addressing the civil liberties violations and unlawful detention of U.S. citizens happening under Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Some of the Democrats who voted yes tried to justify their position by pointing to funding for other agencies like FEMA. Translation: they hid behind disaster relief money to fund an agency that’s terrorizing immigrant communities.
BUT BUT BUT: The good news? The overwhelming majority of Democrats held the line. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised her colleagues for opposing the legislation. Most of the caucus looked at ICE’s body count and decided not to write them a blank check.
WHY IT MATTERS: These seven names matter because they represent the fracture point in Democratic politics on immigration. While most of the party is finally treating ICE’s conduct as the crisis it is, a handful of members—mostly from swing districts or border states—keep providing bipartisan cover for an agency that’s shooting people during arrest attempts.
Body cameras don’t mean much when the person wearing one just killed someone. And $20 million for cameras is a band-aid on a bullet wound. These seven Democrats chose political calculation over principle, and immigrant communities will pay the price.