Pressure on Senators •is working•.

Pressure on Senators •is working•. Previously head-in-sand centrist Senators are actually coming out to vote against ICE funding. Their positions are still weak and insufficient, and more need to cave to pressure — but they are visibly buckling.

Again, we should not and must not wait on elected officials to save us — they will not — but we can and should deploy pressure on them as a strategic tool in moments when that can be useful.

Now is such a moment. KEEP IT UP.

1/

My message to Senators:

❝The correct amount of funding for not just ICE but the •entire Department of Homeland Security• is zero. ZERO. You heard me: the entire agency. Under current leadership, it is off the rails. It is dangerous. It it a menace.

“More training” is a pathetic non-answer; that just means more money. These murderers are trained; they are just monsters. Don’t say “better oversight.” Don’t say “more reforms.” Pull the rug. Switch it off. • Shut • it • down • NOW •

If you have to shut down every airport in the country because the TSA budget is in there too, then you shut down every damned airport in the country. If you have to shut down the federal government again, you shut it down. Your inaction is sleepwalking the country into civil war. SHUT. IT. DOWN.❞

2/

I don’t actually expect centrist Senators to do this. I mean… come on. But a bunch of these noodle-spined tools think politics means splitting the difference between opposing positions, so I’m just giving them an opposing position that actually packs a punch before they water it down. (“Don’t negotiate against yourself. Ask for what you want.”)

3/

I don’t actually expect centrist Senators to do this. I mean… come on. But a bunch of these noodle-spined tools think politics means splitting the difference between opposing positions, so I’m just giving them an opposing position that actually packs a punch before they water it down. (“Don’t negotiate against yourself. Ask for what you want.”)

3/

Pressure on Senators •is working•. Previously head-in-sand centrist Senators are actually coming out to vote against ICE funding. Their positions are still weak and insufficient, and more need to cave to pressure — but they are visibly buckling.

Again, we should not and must not wait on elected officials to save us — they will not — but we can and should deploy pressure on them as a strategic tool in moments when that can be useful.

Now is such a moment. KEEP IT UP.

1/

And to be clear, zeroing out the budget, scrapping the DHS, returning its law enforcement duties to local agencies, and prosecuting ICE officers — all of that! — is the •moderate• position here.

The extremist position is violence of a kind and scale I shudder to contemplate.

Pressure them. Rattle them out of their stupor.

/end

@inthehands

And to be clear, zeroing out the budget, scrapping the DHS, returning its law enforcement duties to local agencies, and prosecuting ICE officers — all of that! — is the •moderate• position here.

The extremist position is violence of a kind and scale I shudder to contemplate.

Pressure them. Rattle them out of their stupor.

/end

My message to Senators:

❝The correct amount of funding for not just ICE but the •entire Department of Homeland Security• is zero. ZERO. You heard me: the entire agency. Under current leadership, it is off the rails. It is dangerous. It it a menace.

“More training” is a pathetic non-answer; that just means more money. These murderers are trained; they are just monsters. Don’t say “better oversight.” Don’t say “more reforms.” Pull the rug. Switch it off. • Shut • it • down • NOW •

If you have to shut down every airport in the country because the TSA budget is in there too, then you shut down every damned airport in the country. If you have to shut down the federal government again, you shut it down. Your inaction is sleepwalking the country into civil war. SHUT. IT. DOWN.❞

2/

@inthehands I would add: anyone who was employed by ICE during either Trump administration is permanently disqualified from employment by the federal government. Any state or local government or private company in the US that employs a former ICE employee will have any federal funding reduced to zero.

We need to *punish* the fascists, by prosecuting the criminals, but also by inflicting harm on anyone who had anything to do with them. Let them be impoverished, and shunned.

Pressure on Senators •is working•. Previously head-in-sand centrist Senators are actually coming out to vote against ICE funding. Their positions are still weak and insufficient, and more need to cave to pressure — but they are visibly buckling.

Again, we should not and must not wait on elected officials to save us — they will not — but we can and should deploy pressure on them as a strategic tool in moments when that can be useful.

Now is such a moment. KEEP IT UP.

1/

@inthehands here’s the thing: ICE already is funded under the Big Beautiful Bill. The upcoming vote (already passed by the House, by the way) is for MORE funding. Killing that bill doesn’t defund ICE. It puts a small pinch on future budgets. I’m sure this government will find a workaround, if it deems the money necessary. It doesn’t seem to believe that Congress really possesses the power of the purse or that Executive Orders related to agencies operate within federal budgeting.

@inthehands

i called my 2 Senators and 1 Representative and said the same thing.

Not one more dime for DHS ICE Border Patrol or Homeland Security

NOT ONE MORE DIME

The whole thing needs to be dismantled

@samiamsam @inthehands it’s already been funded via the Big Beautiful Bill. This bill has already passed the House. The Senate is just adding money to what’s already been approved. The ship has long since sailed with full blessings and champagne toasts. They are fully funded. The House approved the cherry on top already. No one is impeaching or dismantling or defunding anything. Dem donors are happy. Do you see a Dem leader emerging to talk opposition? Not happening.

@samiamsam @inthehands it’s already been funded via the Big Beautiful Bill. This bill has already passed the House. The Senate is just adding money to what’s already been approved. The ship has long since sailed with full blessings and champagne toasts. They are fully funded. The House approved the cherry on top already. No one is impeaching or dismantling or defunding anything. Dem donors are happy. Do you see a Dem leader emerging to talk opposition? Not happening.

Pressure on Senators •is working•. Previously head-in-sand centrist Senators are actually coming out to vote against ICE funding. Their positions are still weak and insufficient, and more need to cave to pressure — but they are visibly buckling.

Again, we should not and must not wait on elected officials to save us — they will not — but we can and should deploy pressure on them as a strategic tool in moments when that can be useful.

Now is such a moment. KEEP IT UP.

1/

@samiamsam @inthehands it’s already been funded via the Big Beautiful Bill. This bill has already passed the House. The Senate is just adding money to what’s already been approved. The ship has long since sailed with full blessings and champagne toasts. They are fully funded. The House approved the cherry on top already. No one is impeaching or dismantling or defunding anything. Dem donors are happy. Do you see a Dem leader emerging to talk opposition? Not happening.

@amyshark

I fully understand every single detail of this, and I do not care. The point of these calls isn’t really to figure out for them how to navigate the logistics and the politics; that is literally their job. The point is to make every senator lie awake sleepless every single night wondering how they can possibly do more to stop ICE, even if they can’t. That’s the position we’re in here in Minneapolis, and I don’t want any elected official to feel one drop more comfort than we’re feeling right now.

@inthehands

I’m in Salem, Oregon. We went to Merkley’s town hall last week. Dodge, weave, duck. And he’s one of the few not beholden to AIPAC. He wants to talk kitchen table issues and platitudes and what will happen after the midterms. They are using chemical weapons on his constituents. They are arresting his families for seeking help at ERs. He will not discuss it. He will not be a leader. And he’s clearly not troubled in his conscience by any of it. I’ll keep calling, but…