| Dear Katy, As chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Democrat Rep. Nita Lowey has the power to cut funding for ICE and CBP. We need to make sure she uses it. Every year at the start of the budget process, the House Committee on Appropriations allocates a pot of non-military discretionary funding to each of the committee's 12 subcommittees, including Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and CBP's budgets.1 Normally, the committee chair divides any increase in this slush fund money to each subcommittee equally. But with a white supremacist in the White House nothing is business as usual. As chair, Rep. Lowey is holding the purse strings. We must make clear to her that progressives are watching and demand that she cut funding for ICE and CBP now and at every step of the budget process. Tell Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey: No slush fund for ICE and CBP. Click here to sign the petition. Donald Trump is waging war on immigrants and refugees. Clear, decisive action from Democrats in the House of Representatives is one of our strongest lines of defense. Trump is going to extremes to fund his anti-immigrant agenda. He stole from FEMA to supercharge ICE.2 He declared a fake national emergency to steal billions of dollars for his border wall even after Congress approved $4 billion to build it.3 And just yesterday, Trump's pick to run DHS announced his plan to inflate the department's immigration enforcement budget before Congress even begins fiscal year 2020 budget negotiations.4 ICE tried to up its budget by manipulating the negotiations process last year, but CREDO members and our allies stopped it from happening. This year, we're in an even better position to fight back. Democrats took back the House of Representatives in November because progressive voters turned out en masse. They sent the youngest and most diverse group of representatives to Congress with a mandate to confront Trump's white supremacy head on and push for policies that put people before politics and corporate interests. Advocating that Democrats who now hold key leadership positions do everything they can to defund Trump's deportation force and racist agenda is an opportunity we cannot afford to squander. That's why we're mobilizing earlier in the budget process. Grassroots activism at this stage is very uncommon, which means that organizing now can have a big impact. Add your name to demand that Rep. Lowey stand with us and restrict discretionary funding for ICE and CBP. Tell Chair of the House Appropriations Committee Nita Lowey: No slush fund for ICE and CBP. Click the link below to sign the petition. https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no-ice-slush-fund?t=9&akid=32440%2E12967895%2EyXnv2v Thank you for your activism. Nicole Regalado, Campaign Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Detention Watch Network, "Tell Chairwoman Lowey to Cut Funding for ICE & CBP," accessed April 30, 2019.
- Camila Domonoske, "Trump Administration Transferred $9.8 Million From FEMA To ICE," NPR, Sept. 12, 2018.
- Peter Baker, "Trump Declares a National Emergency, and Provokes a Constitutional Clash," The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2019.
- Priscilla Alvarez, Geneva Sands and Phil Mattingly, "Acting homeland security secretary says administration will ask Congress for more border funds this year," CNN, April 30, 2019.
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