Opposition to federal immigration enforcement is intensifying as nearly 100 House Democrats say they will refuse to support funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
The Independent Journal Review reported that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said she and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will vote against future funding for immigration enforcement after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent earlier this month.
"We cannot and we should not continue to fund agencies that operate with impunity, that escalate violence and that undermine the very freedoms this country claims to uphold," Omar told reporters. "ICE has no place in terrorizing Minneapolis or any American community."
Omar added that lawmakers would act collectively to oppose what she described as a pattern of violence by the administration.
"Together, we will stand united to ensure we put a check on the pattern of violence and lawlessness from this administration," she said.
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., echoed that stance and used sharper language to describe federal agents.
"We need to prosecute the criminals in masks and to cut and claw back ICE's funding," Ramirez told reporters.
She also called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection, is set to expire Jan. 30.
When asked how criminal illegal immigrants would be handled without ICE funding, House Democrats did not outline a replacement enforcement framework.
Rep. Chuy García, D-Ill., a retiring member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus leadership, said the group does not oppose removals required under federal law.
"The law is clear on the removal of such immigrants who may have criminal records. We're not opposed to that," García said.
García said the focus of the opposition is enforcement tactics rather than immigration law itself.
"What we're opposed to is the trampling of constitutional rights, the racial profiling, the use of masks, the deadly use of force," he said. "The disrespect that agents show in our communities has never been inflicted on any community in recent history."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has not taken a formal position on future immigration enforcement funding.
He criticized the $75 billion allocated to ICE under President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed without support from Democrats.
"It's important to understand that a lot of the funding for ICE that is currently being unleashed on the American people was provided not through the traditional appropriations process," Jeffries said, referring to the law as "the one big, ugly bill."
The defunding push has drawn warnings from Democratic Party strategists and policy groups concerned about political fallout. Third Way, a center-left think tank, urged Democrats to avoid embracing the "abolish ICE" slogan.
"The impulse is emotional. The slogan is simple. But politically, it is lethal," Third Way analysts Sarah Pierce and Lanae Erickson said in a statement. "Every call to abolish ICE risks squandering one of the clearest opportunities in years to secure meaningful reform."
Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine also criticized the approach, calling efforts to defund ICE "political insanity."