It was well above 90 degrees as the marchers arrived outside the U.S. Capitol. They had come from states across the country to deliver a message to their representatives: don’t fund the lawless actions of ICE; instead invest in health care, child care, nutrition, and all the other basic needs. Organized by the group Popular Democracy, with many co-sponsors including the Coalition on Human Needs, people came to tell Congress that their communities and families were struggling, and instead of providing help, federal agents were rounding up their neighbors, detaining and deporting them, and buying up warehouses to hold many thousands more. 

They were going to congressional office buildings to meet with their representatives, and I’m proud to say that two groups of these dedicated constituents were guided by CHN staffers Dominique Espinoza and Meredith Dodson. But first, people gathered under the hot sun to hear from people with stories to tell and from members of Congress who came to greet them.

CHN’s Meredith Dodson supporting PA Loves Immigrant, a community organization from PA – they met with 4 Congress Representatives and both PA Senators.

We heard about the wife of a member of the military arrested as she appeared at an office to claim military family benefits she was entitled to. We heard from a young woman talking about how expensive it is for her parents to pay for doctor visits and prescriptions; she called for investing funds in health care for all, not ICE.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-7) told us that President Trump is now saying out loud what his administration has been doing: he doesn’t care about people losing health care or other services. He is stripping your health care, food, and energy to fund ICE. Rep. Jayapal reminded us that over 100,000 citizen children have been separated from their detained immigrant parents.

Rep. Analilia Mejia of New Jersey

We listened to New Jersey’s newest member of Congress, Analilia Mejia (NJ-11), who described visiting the Newark detention center Delaney Hall where she met with 70 men who were crying, asking for help to try to reach their families. She said “My heart broke but my spine strengthened.”

The Fund Care, Not ICE event took place on May 20. Days later, a hunger strike broke out in Delaney Hall. Hundreds of detainees joined in the strike, demanding release from the privately run detention center, which has had many reports of inadequate and rotten food and poor access to medical care. Community members demonstrated outside the detention center in support of the detainees. ICE agents pepper-sprayed and threatened them with weapons. New Jersey Senator Andy Kim and Governor Mikie Sherrill attempted to intervene. ICE was apparently attempting to move detainees to other facilities, and some protesters were trying to block this, for fear that all contact would be lost with the detainees. Governor Sherrill was not allowed to enter the facility, although Rep. Rob Menendez (NJ-8) was admitted on Memorial Day after waiting all night to get in. As reported in The New York Times, he met with “a young woman who just wanted to go to her high school graduation, a pregnant woman who was trying to get medical care, and a man who showed him a carton of milk that had gone rancid. 

‘I heard just desperation from so many people in there,’ Mr. Menendez said afterward.” 

Conditions at Delaney Hall affirm the purpose of the people who came to the Capitol to call for funding care, not ICE. ICE and Border Protection have acted in reckless disregard of the law, grabbing and detaining people whether or not they are in the country legally, with no concern for their health or their children. They are snapping up warehouses to detain more, and seek to deport people to unsafe countries. They don’t need more blank checks from Congress. They need to be forced to abide by the law. 

Congress was expected to pass more funding for ICE and Border Protection before leaving for its Memorial Day recess, but they gave up after the Trump administration announced its intent to create a $1.776 billion fund to pay supporters it claims have been mistreated by so-called “weaponized” previous administrations. This slush fund, which as proposed will operate without Congressional oversight, is widely believed to open the door to pay January 6 rioters, including those who had been convicted of violence. But as the facts of Delaney Hall emerge, added to all the lawless actions of the Trump administration nationwide, it is clear that the literal weaponization is all theirs: snatching people from their families, causing harm and even death, with the administration’s reckless actions over and over again ruled against in courts. Congress will return in June and go back to trying to pass funding for ICE and Border Protection, while the Trump administration every day grows bolder in seeking to weaponize government against our own people, costing us more, denying us aid, and locking up our neighbors. But the public is catching on, and, just like the people who came to talk to their members of Congress last week, they don’t like the lawlessness and how much it is costing all of us.