Courtesy photo
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says she will vote against an emergency supplemental bill that would provide an additional $1.2 billion in funding to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes $128 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In a statement issued on Sunday with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the progressive congresswomen went a step further and called on ICE to be abolished.
In the statement, they noted the agency's "blatant human rights abuses" and said they "can't in good conscience" approve more money for a "fundamentally cruel and broken immigration system."
The emergency border supplemental bill will come before the House in the coming weeks.
It arrives as ICE continues running what some are labeling concentration camps for migrants. The agency is responsible for the deaths of multiple children at the detention camps, and children and adults are being denied toothbrushes, medical assistance, and are generally being kept in squalid conditions.
The Trump administration also recently announced massive immigration raids that were supposed to take place this weekend but were delayed until after Vice President Mike Pence holds his "Latinos for Trump" event in Florida.
The statement from the congresswomen reads:
“The Trump Administration would rather criminalize immigrants, separate families, and detain refugees than practice empathy and compassion. Recent reports of a massive deportation operation, targeting thousands of immigrant families in major cities across the country are further evidence that this President will stop at nothing in order to carry out his hateful agenda.
“These radicalized, criminal agencies are destroying families and killing innocent children. It is absolutely unconscionable to even consider giving one more dollar to support this President’s deportation force that openly commits human rights abuses and refuses to be held accountable to the American people.
“That is why in good conscience, we cannot support this supplemental funding bill, which gives even more money to ICE and CBP and continues to support a fundamentally cruel and broken immigration system.
“If these blatant human rights abuses were taking place in any other country, the United States government would rightfully demand transparency, accountability and call for international organizations to investigate abuses and assist in the safe, swift delivery of humanitarian aid. We cannot turn our backs on the abuses taking place on our own soil, executed by our own government.
“We must be equitable in our outrage. We must abolish ICE. We must invest in community-based alternatives to detention. We must end the system of mass detention and deportation of immigrants. We must create an immigration system that reflects our values and respects the dignity and humanity of all.”
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