Dear MoveOn member,
This is it. This is the moment we have the most leverage to stop Donald Trump from turning our streets into war zones.
ICE’s heinous actions in Minnesota, which Governor Tim Walz called “a campaign of organized brutality against the people of Minnesota by our own federal government”—are coming to other Democratic cities.1 Already, the governor of Maine and mayors of Portland and Lewiston—both home to large Somali populations—are warning residents that ICE will descend upon their cities this week, and the fear is palpable.2,3
How many more people will ICE brutalize, spray with chemical agents, indiscriminately grab off the streets and out of their homes and shove into unmarked vans, deny their rights, shoot and wound—like Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis last week—and kill—like Renee Good?4
Trump is now threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act—sending in the military to crush peaceful protests in Minneapolis.5 This is a national crisis.
We have two major tools to rein in Trump and ICE. First, funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, runs out on January 30. Republicans in Congress need Democratic votes to fund ICE—since appropriations bills must clear 60 votes in the Senate.
Democrats have real leverage. They must use it. We cannot allow them to squander it—again. Not now.
Second, we must keep taking to the streets—loudly, urgently, and peacefully—to demand that ICE get out of our communities, and we need leaders in every corner of American society to join and quickly grow our movement.
Will you start a monthly donation of $5 to MoveOn today? Your support will help fund our efforts to force Democrats to use their leverage in Congress AND organize the mass movement to drive ICE out of our communities.
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
Let’s be clear about what’s really happening here: Trump and Republicans are deploying heavily armed ICE agents into our streets so they can get away with screwing working people over with no accountability.
Here’s how Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put it: “I want everybody to understand: The cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. So, understand how these dots connect. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face. That is what this administration’s doing.”6
The time to act is now—before the violence and cruelty are unleashed on more Democratic cities and get even worse. ICE reportedly plans to invest $100 million in what it calls the “wartime recruitment” of 10,000 new agents, in addition to the 20,000 already employed, with recruitment targeting gun and military enthusiasts and people who listen to right-wing radio, among others.7
But here’s the hard reality that we know all too well: Democrats caved on two critical funding fights since Trump returned to power—handing him hundreds of millions in additional ICE funding in March 2025, then again in November—after holding out on health care for a month, thanks to grassroots pressure from so many of you. Each time, they had leverage. Each time, they gave it away.
We cannot let it happen again. Not after an off-duty ICE agent killed Keith Porter in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.8 Not after what we’ve seen in Minneapolis. Not after Renee Good. Not after Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Not after a 6-month-old baby was hospitalized because ICE detonated flash-bang grenades near their family’s van.9
Right now, as you read this, Congress is writing the DHS funding bill. This is our window. MoveOn and our coalition partners are demanding that Congress:
- Reject any bill that increases ICE funding—not one more penny for Trump’s deportation force
- Put real restrictions on ICE’s dragnet operations that target people based on race, language, or accent
- End Border Patrol deployment in our cities and their ever-expanding role as Trump’s personal secret police
- Cut off ICE’s slush funds by limiting their ability to move money around for detention centers and military weapons
The Congressional Progressive Caucus has announced they will “oppose all funding for immigration enforcement in any appropriation bills until meaningful reforms are enacted.”10 That’s 100 members of Congress. But it’s just the start. We need every Democrat to have a spine.
And that only happens if we make our voices and growing movement impossible to ignore.
MoveOn’s work in the days after Good’s killing was instrumental to enabling protests to very quickly come together in 1,300 communities nationwide. We led a powerful vigil and rally outside Customs and Border Protection’s headquarters last Tuesday with more than 1,000 people. We’re organizing actions targeting Congress, getting the word out about the events, and flooding Congress with calls, texts, and letters from tens of thousands of people across the country; on Friday alone, MoveOn members sent 38,000 letters demanding Congress not fund ICE.
But we need resources to keep this movement growing. Organizing at this scale, at this speed, with this much on the line—it’s not cheap. But it’s what this moment demands.
Please donate $5 a month to rein in Trump and help get ICE out of our communities.
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
This is the moment. Help us seize it.
We’re in this together, and together we can—and will—stop ICE’s terror.
Thanks for all you do.
–Mia, Oscar, Amanda R., Kami, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “Governor Walz Remarks on the Federal Government’s Ongoing Presence in Minnesota,” Office of Governor Tim Walz, January 14, 2026
https://mn.gov/governor/newsroom/press-releases/?id=719765
2. “‘Maine will not be intimidated’: Gov. Mills shares video statement on potential federal operations in state,” WMTW, January 14, 2026
https://www.wmtw.com/article/maine-governor-statement-potential-federal-operations/70003521
3. “Mayors of Portland, Lewiston warn of possible increased ICE presence in Maine cities,” WMTW, January 14, 2026
https://www.wmtw.com/article/increased-ice-presence-warning-portland-lewiston-maine/70002487
4. “Dueling accounts of ICE shooting of Venezuelan migrant in Minneapolis,” CBS News, January 15, 2026
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dueling-accounts-of-ice-shooting-of-venezuelan-migrant-in-minneapolis/
5. “Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act (again). What is it?” NPR, January 15, 2026
https://www.npr.org/2026/01/15/nx-s1-5678612/minneapolis-insurrection-act-trump-threats
6. “Ocasio-Cortez Explains How ‘You Get Screwed Over’ To Pay For ICE ‘Shooting Mothers In The Face,'” Yahoo!, January 14, 2026
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/ocasio-cortez-explains-screwed-over-224259984.html
7. “ICE plans $100 million ‘wartime recruitment’ push targeting gun shows, military fans for hires,” The Washington Post, December 31, 2025
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/31/ice-wartime-recruitment-push/
8. “ICE agent believed responsible for L.A. killing accused of child abuse, racism in court filings,” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2026
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-01-16/ice-agent-los-angeles-shooting-court-records
9. “January 15, 2026,” Letters from an American, January 16, 2026
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-15-2026
10. “Congressional progressives vow to block DHS funding without reforms,” The Guardian, January 13, 2026
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/dhs-funding-congress-progressives
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