National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, provided the following response ahead of the House vote on H.R. 7148, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, which includes a two-week Continuing Resolution for the Department of Homeland Security:

“National Nurses United remains clear and unwavering in our demands: no funding for ICE, take away the $140 billion slush fund given to ICE and CBP in H.R.1, and abolish ICE.

Calls by some members of Congress to simply reiterate existing legal protections, like requiring judicial warrants for arrests, completely fail to recognize the reality we are living. ICE and this administration have made clear that they have no intention of abiding by the law. Anything short of stripping funding from this tyrannical agency is an abdication of duty by the legislative branch.

At the start of this year, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement celebrating the hiring of an additional 12,000 ICE agents in less than one year, bringing the total to more than 22,000 agents. This expansion of untrained, unaccountable, and lawless ICE agents on our streets were made possible by the $75 billion allocated to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $65 billion to Customs and Border Patrol over the next four years as part of last year’s harmful Republican reconciliation bill. 

This massive increase in ICE funding, combined with directives from this administration to terrorize our communities, has directly contributed to the senseless and lawless killings of our neighbors and friends, including, most recently, Renee Good, Keith Porter, Silverio Villegas González, and our fellow VA nurse, Alex Pretti.

Nurses demand that any deal reached on the Department of Homeland Security funding must zero out funding for ICE, take away the $75 billion allocated to ICE and $65 billion for CBP in last year’s Republican budget reconciliation bill, and take immediate action to abolish ICE. We are past the point of reforms. Since its inception over 20 years ago, ICE has proven that its mission has never been about keeping our communities safe.  Abolish ICE now.”

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.