Editor’s note: The following letter was sent by the Coalition on Human Needs to members of the U.S. Senate on May 21, 2026. After the letter was sent, it was reported that Congress would leave for Memorial Day recess week without acting on the bill to fund ICE. Many of CHN partners and allies have joined us in opposing the $70 billion in funds for ICE and Border Patrol slated to be voted on in the next couple of days, but now hung up over additional funding the Trump administration wants, including funds for White House ballroom/security and for the newly unveiled nearly $1.8 billion slush/corruption/anti-“weaponization” fund. There is growing disarray among Republicans, so they could not complete work on the ICE/CBP funding.

Dear Senator, 

On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs and our 118 member organizations, we urge you to vote NO on the reconciliation package providing tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and to oppose harmful immigration-related amendments offered during vote-a-rama.  

The Coalition on Human Needs unites human service providers, faith communities, labor organizations, policy experts, civil rights advocates, and many others who share a steadfast commitment to the well-being of people living with low incomes. Across our membership, the testimony is consistent and alarming: escalating enforcement actions are compounding hardship in communities throughout the nation. Families are withdrawing from vital health and nutrition programs out of fear. Children are too frightened to attend school. Workers increasingly dare not report unsafe conditions or exploitation. Survivors hesitate to seek the assistance and protection they desperately need. Expanding the detention and enforcement apparatus at this extraordinary scale will only deepen fear and instability — while diverting precious resources away from the urgent human needs that demand our collective attention.  

The breadth of opposition to this approach extends far beyond immigration advocacy circles. The Coalition on Human Needs joined a May letter endorsed by more than 1,100 national, state, and local organizations calling on Congress to reject additional funding for ICE and the Border Patrol and a May 15 letter opposing harmful immigration-related amendments during votearama. We also joined a separate letter — signed by 78 disability and allied organizations — cautioning that expanding the detention and enforcement infrastructure while simultaneously cutting programs such as Medicaid and SNAP would visit profound harm upon people with disabilities, caregivers, Deaf and hard of hearing individuals, and families already struggling to secure care and basic stability. Additionally, more than 250 organizations recently urged Congress to place children’s safety and well-being at the center of Department of Homeland Security policymaking and funding decisions.— – which this reconciliation package fails to do. Taken together, these letters reflect a mounting chorus of concern among human needs, disability rights, labor, faith, health, civil rights, and children’s advocacy organizations regarding the long-term human and fiscal consequences of dramatically expanding immigration enforcement funding through the reconciliation process.  

The reconciliation package under consideration would provide at least $71 billion in additional immigration enforcement funding, including approximately $26 billion for ICE (funding through 2029!) and $38 billion for CBP, with no guardrails and severely constrained congressional oversight. This funding would significantly expand detention capacity, enforcement operations, surveillance infrastructure, and long-term federal obligations at a moment when countless families are already contending with soaring housing, food, and health care costs.   

Simultaneously, many in Congress continues to pursue sweeping reductions  to basic need programs such as ACA coverage and Medicaid, including care services that enable older adults and people with disabilities to remain in their homes, while locking in cuts to SNAP’s vital food assistance that millions need amid rising grocery costs SNAP — the very programs that sustain families in their most vulnerable moments. These are not neutral fiscal choices. They represent a deliberate and consequential reorientation of federal priorities: away from health care, nutritional support, and economic security, and toward an ever-expanding detention and enforcement regime.  

We are gravely concerned as well by the prospect of vote-a-rama amendments that would further extend detention and enforcement authorities, impose additional punitive immigration penalties, curtail immigrant families’ access to health and nutrition supports, or redirect federal resources toward yet more enforcement infrastructure. These proposals are being pressed through an accelerated reconciliation process that affords little opportunity for full debate, meaningful amendment, or rigorous oversight. Congress should not exploit the reconciliation mechanism to advance sweeping immigration enforcement changes whose consequences for families and communities will endure for decades.  

Existing immigration law already imposes severe penalties across a broad spectrum of criminal convictions and immigration violations. Expanding these penalties further risks eroding due process protections, accelerating family separation, and compounding barriers to stability for mixed-status families and long-established community members — without meaningfully addressing the structural challenges that have long confronted our immigration system.  

The regular appropriations process exists for a reason: to ensure transparency, accountability, and sustained congressional oversight. Routing massive increases in immigration enforcement funding through reconciliation circumvents many of those essential safeguards while foreclosing opportunities for genuine scrutiny and bipartisan deliberation. The legitimate imperative to fund the Department of Homeland Security must not be marshalled as a pretext to accelerate tens of billions of dollars in expanded detention and enforcement spending outside the ordinary appropriations process.  

We urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to reject this reconciliation package and to oppose harmful immigration-related amendments offered during vote-a-rama. Congress has the opportunity — and the obligation — to prioritize investments that fortify the health, stability, and economic security of families and communities, rather than committing tens of billions of dollars to an ever-expanding detention and enforcement apparatus that imperils the very people we are called to serve.  

Sincerely,  

Deborah Weinstein 
Executive Director