“On November 3, voters from coast to coast rejected this cruel, lawless and costly agenda and handed you a mandate for change,” 16 state and national groups write to Democratic leaders
Democrats set to take power in the upcoming Congress must act immediately to rein in ICE’s abuses and lawlessness by issuing day-one subpoenas for mass deportation architects and move to freeze all new ICE spending and contracts, more than a dozen state and national groups led by America’s Voice write in a new letter to elected leaders.
“On November 3, voters from coast to coast rejected this cruel, lawless and costly agenda and handed you a mandate for change,” 16 national and state Latino, immigrant, and civil rights organizations write to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate committees with oversight of immigration enforcement. “Latino voters were among those leading the way: about 7 in 10 backed Democratic House candidates, two years after Donald Trump won close to half of the Latino vote. That vote reached well beyond border states like California and Texas, and beyond big cities. It included communities in Minnesota, Maine, and across the country where families have lived through ICE raids.”
SUBPOENA MASS DEPORTATION ARCHITECT STEPHEN MILLER ON DAY ONE
“These voters know firsthand what this agenda has done to their families and neighbors, and their vote was a verdict, not a suggestion, calling on leaders in Congress to act,” the groups write. The leaders say that this call for accountability must include subpoenaing Stephen Miller – a notorious promoter of white nationalist ideology and a mastermind behind the cruelest anti-immigrant policies from both of Trump’s administrations – on day one when the new Congress goes into session come January.
“Miller is the architect of mass deportation, and Trump has now made him White House chief of staff. Congress should subpoena his testimony under oath and his records on day one, and his new title must not shield him from answering for the agenda he built,” groups say.
HAUL IN MILLER’S ACCOMPLICES TOO
Other administration officials who aided and abetted Miller’s bloody agenda should also appear before lawmakers, the organizations say. They call for day-one subpoenas for DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin, acting ICE Director David Venturella and so-called “Border Czar” Tom Homan, who promised to “run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” as we noted last year. “Public testimony under oath, along with records on deaths in custody, the detention of children, and the killing of U.S. citizens, is the next step to reining in ICE. These officials are only the starting point,” the groups’ letter continues. “Accountability must extend to everyone across the government who carried out this agenda.”
FREEZE ALL NEW MASS DEPORTATION SPENDING AND CONTRACTS
Because Congressional Republicans have already handed the administration and its mass deportation agencies enough taxpayer dollars to continue its agenda through 2029, stripping ICE of previously allocated funding could prove to be difficult. Groups say Democrats could still use their new authority by freezing any new spending and contracts and ensuring that no additional funds or contracts should flow to ICE “until Congress has a full accounting of how the agency has spent the money it already has.”
ACCOUNTABILITY IS COMING, CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS SAY
Following generational wins across the nation, Democrats have said that “major reforms to the way ICE works” can happen.
“That is requiring a judicial warrant for any ICE agent to arrest anybody on the streets or in their homes, banning masks, actually having accountability and the ability for ICE agents to be held accountable by local and state entities for abuses on the streets,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) told Talking Points Memo. Jayapal, chair of the powerful House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, said she also “isn’t giving up on reversing some of the huge surge in ICE funding that was passed by Republicans earlier this year,” the outlet noted.
“The bigger question of clawing back the money has to be done,” Jayapal said. “We can reappropriate it. We can claw it back and put it towards health care, put it towards childcare, put it towards other things. And so, we’re looking at all the ways to do that.”
INNOCENT LIVES LOST, DEPLORABLE DETENTION STANDARDS
The letter notes that mass deportation has already claimed too many lives. “At least 62 people have died in ICE custody under this administration,” with the San Francisco Chronicle reporting that ICE’s own investigations finding that 23 of 29 people who died in immigration detention between January 2025 and January 2026 received substandard medical care “that the agency itself determined was deficient.”
“The reviews determined that medical staff repeatedly fell short of an array of detention standards, including failing to provide emergency care,” the report said. “At least eight times, medical staff failed to perform CPR correctly or at all on immigrant detainees who then died. In only three of the 23 cases, investigators concluded that deviations from safe limits of practice did not directly contribute to a person’s death.” While Delvin Rodriguez expressed suicidal ideations that triggered precautions at a Louisiana camp operated by private prison company CoreCivic earlier this year, ICE investigators said that a guard returned a sheet that a colleague had initially removed from his cell. Rodriguez would be dead within a day.
These reports detailing preventable in-custody deaths “represent the first official acknowledgement by [ICE] of widespread failures in the healthcare provided to people who died in custody,” the San Francisco Chronicle noted.
DEATHS AND ABUSES EXTEND FAR BEYOND DETENTION CAMPS
Earlier this year, after Haitian Temporary Protected Status was rescinded by Trump (a decision later held up by the Supreme Court), 20-year-old college freshman Pierre Damas Bel died by suicide after being forced to wear ankle monitors from ICE. His death was equally preventable.
“Federal immigration agents have killed U.S. citizens, including Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas and Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota,” groups continued in the letter to Congressional leaders. “An estimated 205,000 children, including about 145,000 U.S. citizens, have had a parent detained, a toll illustrated by five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, who was detained himself after preschool and sent with his father to a family detention center in Texas.” Just days ago, an eight-year-old Haitian child was taken into custody during a scheduled check-in. The boy had been living with loved ones following his dad’s deportation. “This is what we call ‘Orphans by deportation,’” Haitian Bridge Alliance said.
“And racial profiling is rampant,” groups say. “A Pew Research Center survey found that 46% of U.S.-born Latinos worry that they or someone close to them could be deported, rising to 63% among Latino immigrants. No family should have to live with that fear.”
ANGER OVER IMMIGRATION OVERREACH DROVE VOTERS TO THE POLLS
A new survey of more than 3,000 Latino midterm voters reveals that anger and discontentment resulting from federal overreach on immigration helped fuel a historic turnout that delivered a seismic rebuke of the administration’s policies and allies. That polling revealed that 68% of Latino voters either strongly or somewhat disapproved of Trump’s handling of immigration and ICE, while an even higher percentage of Latino voters, 76%, supported ICE reforms, including body camera and mask prohibitions.
Notably, a resounding 68% of Latino voters opposed the $240 billion total that Republicans have handed over to the administration to carry out its mass deportation agenda, and said that money should go to other programs instead, as Jayapal has suggested.
FAMILIES DESERVE ACCOUNTABILITY AND ANSWERS UNDER OATH
“Our message is clear: we demand accountability for the fear and suffering this administration has inflicted on our families and communities,” said America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas. “Latino voters turned out in historic numbers and delivered a sharp rebuke of the Trump-Miller mass deportation machine that targeted the entire Latino population in America and brought fear and lawlessness to every corner of America. Trump responded to the electoral tidal wave by promoting the person responsible for mass deportations.”
“Today, Latino organizations from across the country are speaking with one voice,” Cárdenas continued. “The new Congress now has the power to rein in ICE and hold them responsible for its violent, lawless tactics, and we stand ready to help them use it from day one. Families have buried loved ones, watched parents ripped from their children, and paid the ICE Tax out of their wallets. They deserve answers under oath and they deserve accountability.”
