We’ve all been watching as ICE has brutalized our immigrant communities and murdered those bearing witness in Minneapolis. As Mennonites, we must speak up. This week– as soon as tomorrow– the Senate will vote on the DHS appropriations bill that has already passed in the House. This means we have a small window to enact meaningful change: stop any increase in funding for ICE. As constituents, it’s critical we call upon our Senators and demand they refuse to vote for any appropriations bill that continues to fund the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.

The recent killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr. have been horrifying to watch unfold. But even before these deaths, ICE has facilitated the deaths of migrants held in detention centers, disappeared our neighbors, and created fear and chaos in the lives of our immigrant neighbors. The recent killing of American citizens is a new chapter in a long history of state violence and brutality, primarily leveraged against black and brown people. We see ICE as an extension of the same violence that’s claimed tens of thousands of lives in Gaza over the past two years. From Palestine to Minneapolis, authoritarian power asserts violence and subjugation over those created in the image of God– but Jesus stands on the side of the oppressed.