Friends,
At midnight tonight, the Department of Homeland Security will shut down.
DHS isn’t shutting down because of a typical budget fight over spending levels — it’s because Senate Democrats are refusing to fund these agencies until there are real reforms in how ICE operates.
They’re demanding body cameras, visible identification for agents, and an end to roving patrols. They want warrants to be required before agents can enter people’s homes.
Each of these demands comes directly from what we experienced and witnessed here in Minnesota over the past two months.
Yesterday, I shared that ICE’s surge operation is ending in Minnesota. Today I want to emphasize something very important — what happened here didn’t stay here.
The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
The 130 kids missing from a school every day because their families were afraid.
The restaurants down 50 to 80 percent.
The detainees at the Whipple building denied lawyers and pressured into signing their own deportation papers.
A federal judge, appointed by Trump himself, ruled that ICE likely violated people’s constitutional rights.
All of that went from the streets of Minneapolis to the floor of the United States Senate.
Yesterday, ICE’s acting director told senators that neither he nor CBP provided Secretary Noem any assessment that Alex Pretti was engaged in “domestic terrorism” — undercutting her public claims.
He also revealed that ICE cut training for new recruits nearly in half before sending agents into our communities with guns — the same communities where Alex Pretti and Renee Good were killed.
Congress left town today without a deal and they won’t be back until February 23. Democrats have said they will not fund DHS without accountability for what happened here and real guardrails to prevent it from happening in the next city — potentially your city.
This isn’t “politics” — these are people’s families and lives, and we all have to take a stand.
What’s happening now is the direct result of people like you standing with us when it mattered most.
This fight is far from over — the shutdown won’t actually stop ICE. Trump’s reconciliation bill separately funded immigration enforcement, so ICE agents will continue operating and receiving paychecks during the shutdown while TSA workers and FEMA employees do not. That is by design, so the pressure must continue.
We need to keep organizing and showing up. We need to keep building the faith leader network that can respond when ICE targets the next city. And we must keep working to elect a Congress that will put a check on these agencies.
Your contribution right now funds our rapid response teams, organizing, and mission to flip red House seats blue in 2026 in districts all across the country. Minneapolis’ strength is now a national movement, and we need the resources to match.
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Minneapolis showed everyone what’s possible when people refuse to look away. Let’s make sure the country doesn’t forget.
In this together,
Doug
Vote Common Good inspires people of good conscience to wake up, stand up, and speak up against MAGA politics and Christian Nationalism. We have a proven record of success moving faith voters away from radical candidates and inspiring them to vote their values for the common good. Please consider a contribution today.