On May 20, Cuban Independence Day, U.S. prosecutors indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro with murder for shooting down two planes charging him with murder for shooting down two planes filled with exiled Cubans in 1966—probably as a pretext for an invasion, or at least a snatch-and-grab operation like that against Venezuelan President  Nicolas Maduro. Trump then deployed the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, with its 2,500 Marines, to the region and increased surveillance flights along Cuba’s coast, sending a clear message it could pounce at any time.

Congress cannot remain silent, as it did when Trump illegally declared war against Venezuela and Iran. Instead, it must reassert its exclusive, constitutionally enshrined war-making authority enshrined in the Constitution, support Reps. Velázquez’s and Meeks’ recently introduced resolution barring an attack on Cuba without Congressional approval, and legislatively lift Trump’s illegal blockade.

After keeping DHS without a budget for months because it refused the reforms Americans demanded, Trump’s Senate lackeys are now using the reconciliation process to keep his out-of-control Gestapo, his incredibly cruel, inhumane mass deportation campaign, and ICE concentration camps funded through 2029. The Senate is debating it today, and it might reach the House tomorrow.

Our MoCs must do everything in their power to (1) prevent passage of this obscene, unnecessary reconciliation bill, (2) keep pushing for meaningful reform of Trump’s unaccountable, cruel mass deportation regime, (3) keep speaking out against the ongoing serious DHS abuses, the deplorable conditions inside its concentration camps, and its continuing attempts to punish sanctuary cities, (4) pass legislation rejecting Trump’s entire “settlement”—including both the slush fund and the IRS immunity, and (5) reallocate the $70 billion to programs benefitting the American people.

Rather than allowing the 1100 Afghans—Special Operations forces and interpreters who fought with us and families of American soldiers—currently housed at a U.S military base in Qatar to join their 190,000 countrymen already resettled here, Trump ‘s given them the Faustian choice of resettling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a faraway, unstable country already housing 600,000 African refugees, or being repatriated to Afghanistan, where torture or death at the hands of the Taliban await them. 

It is completely unconscionable for Trump to force our Afghan allies to make this Faustian choice. Our Members of Congress must join the growing number of colleagues demanding we keep our promises and ensure Afghans immediate admission to the U.S.

On January 15, 2026, Trump announced the formation of his Board of Peace, whose ostensible mandate was to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza—a nimble alternative to the United Nations. A month later, without Congress's approval, Trump declared that the United States would contribute $ 10 billion toward his project. The Guardian calls it a “pay-to-play club: a global version of his Mar-a-Lago court aimed at supplanting the UN,” and we share Representative Jamie Raskin’s view that the Board is a slush fund designed to funnel money to Trump. Our message to our MoCs: Congress must not authorize a penny of taxpayer money for this corrupt project.

In the next several days Congress will vote on extending FISA Section 701, one of our most objectionable and widely abused surveillance policies. It’s allowed the FBI and other federal agencies to conduct millions of warrantless “backdoor” searches of Americans’ communications with foreigners. These agencies also improperly spy on Americans by abusing the data broker loophole, which allows them to buy sensitive private information from data collection companies instead of getting a warrant. Section 702’s renewal is especially controversial, given Trump’s push for the unfettered use of AI , his labeling as “domestic terrorists” any opposing his agenda, and DHS’ improper data collection on protestors, community observers, and immigrants it’s seeking to deport—making congressional reform imperative.

Let’s thank Senator Wyden for working tirelessly to protect our privacy and Fourth Amendment rights and urge our MoCs to refuse to reauthorize Section 702 unless it closes both the data broker and backdoor search loopholes and requires a warrant to access Americans’ sensitive personal data. 

Over the past decade, American taxpayers have spent almost $20 billion on military assistance to Israel, enabling the Netanyahu regime to escalate its genocidal wars in Gaza and its indiscriminate bombings across Lebanon and Iran. On March 6, Rubio improperly invoked the Arms Export Control Act’s emergency provision to prevent oversight role and rush delivery of a tranche of weapons, costing American taxpayers $660 million, that would resupply its airstrike capacity as it expands its bombing operations across the region. The three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by Senators Sanders, Merkley, Van Hollen, and Welch, which should come up for a vote within days, would block their transfer.

Let’s thank Senator Merkley for his steadfast opposition to Israel’s war crimes and demand that our other Members of Congress condemn Israel’s ongoing aggressions in the Middle East, support these Joint Resolutions of Disapproval, and urge their colleagues to break their slavish dependency on AIPAC. 

Frantic about rising gas prices in the US caused by his war of choice in Iran, Trump unilaterally lifted sanctions against both Russian and Iranian oil, providing them each with billions of dollars in windfall oil profits they’re using in their war efforts against Ukraine, a US ally, and the US respectively.

We can’t let Russia be the ultimate winner in this war. As a first step, Congress must condemn Trump’s militarism, reaffirm our commitment to Ukraine and demand the reimposition of oil sanctions.

On Tuesday, over the objection of all Democrats and one Republican, the Senate began debating, the SAVE America Act, which would disenfranchise the millions of Americans unable to prove citizenship with a birth certificate or passport matching their legal names and effectively destroy online and mail-in voter registration, voter registration drives, and vote-by-mail. 

Let’s thank our Senators for staying united and remaining committed to killing this extreme anti-voting legislation, aimed at silencing Americans and manipulating election results—and relay our thanks to all Senators protecting our cherished right to vote.

Pete Hegseth’s controversial nomination hearings, which included sexual assault and drunkenness accusations, clearly demonstrated his unfitness to serve as Defense Secretary.  Since then, this overgrown, fist-thumping juvenile’s been destroying the Department, stomping on the Constitution, and putting Americans at risk [see Background for specifics]. Congress cannot keep ignoring its duty to oversee Trump’s out-of-control Cabinet. Noem is gone and Hegseth must be next. 

Our Representatives must push for the immediate filing of Articles of Impeachment, and investigations must begin in both Houses—making it clear that Hegseth will be held accountable for his illegal behavior. Unless he resigns, he must be impeached.

Trump, already bored with his unpopular Iran was, is saber-rattling again—threatening “a friendly takeover” of Cuba. That no military hostilities have yet begun allows Congress to finally exercise its war power proactively, as the Constitution and American law require—rather than having to play catch up.

MAGA Republicans stood by when Trump illegally declared war against Venezuela and Iran—expensive wars Americans don’t want and for which they’ll suffer politically. To prevent a similar war with Cuba, our MoCs must push for war powers resolutions in both Houses. The stakes—both here and abroad—are too great not to stop this petty bully in his tracks once and for all.

Despite widespread opposition to ICE tactics, the abuses, both on the streets of American cities and in ICE’s concentration camps, continue unabated because it’s funded by the reconciliation bill’s huge slush fund. 

While we must thank Democrats for pushing for ICE’s terror machine reforms and for rejecting MAGA demands that they fold because of Trump’s Iran war, more than ironclad restrictions on ICE/CBP behavior; ICE’s removal from our communities; ending its blank-check brutality; and creating clear guardrails against warrantless arrests, profiling and enforcement at sensitive locations like schools and hospitals is needed. Democrats must additionally demand the claw-back of funding allowing aggravation of ICE’s cruel, abusive behavior. 

Donald Trump will deliver his State of the Union address next Tuesday evening—a self-congratulatory, authoritarian rant designed to boost his ratings and normalize his power-grabs, which Democrats shouldn’t normalize by attending. Democrats are creating, instead, a counter-narrative–a “People’s State of the Union” focusing on people hurt by Trump’s cruel and disruptive policies, which is the best way to offer a cohesive message of resistance to Trump’s policies.

Let’s thank Senator Merkley for committing to attend this rally, urge our other MoCs to stand with him and those seriously harmed by Trump’s cruel and disruptive policies, and ask them to convince their colleagues to join them. Just think of the powerful message a half-empty House will send to both those fighting valiantly against Trump’s unconstitutional behavior and the many others not yet courageous enough to join the resistance?

Americans see how Trump’s rogue, militarized police force is completely upending the lives of all Minneapolitans. And. They. Want. It. To Stop. Immediately. There. And. Everywhere.

Congressional Democrats, at least, have heard their pleas. They’re refusing to fund DHS until Trump’s militarized occupation of “blue” American cities stops, deplorable conditions at his concentration camps are improved, and ICE and CBP are meaningfully reformed.

We must continue reminding our MoCs that Americans expect them to protect all our communities  from the horrors of Trump’s occupation army and demand that any DHS funding bill contain, at a minimum: all the above reforms with economic penalties for noncompliance,  a promise to immediately remove all immigration enforcement agents from American cities, and permanent cuts to ICE and CBP funding. Simon Rosenberg also suggests Democrats force a debate about agents narrowing their targets to focus only on dangerous criminals—if they did so, they wouldn’t need all that extra money or additional detention capacity.

On Saturday, Oregon families attending a “Labor’s Against ICE” protest got a taste of ICE’s gratuitous violence daily wracking cities and towns in Minnesota. While peacefully marching past the ICE building in South Waterfront, they were hit with tear-gas and pepper balls in the late afternoon and evening. 

Senate Dems vowed to rein in ICE. While, on Friday, they all voted to rescind the $75 billion contained in the reconciliation bill, later all but 23—including Merkley and Wyden—gave up their leverage by agreeing to basically fund the government until September, with the exception of DHS, which got a 2-week CR to allow for negotiations on reining in enforcement agents. Let’s thank our Senators for their good work, while reminding all MoCs that without really meaningful reforms—well beyond Schumer’s minimal proposal—these unconstrained assaults will get even worse.

When children are being kidnapped off the streets, U.S. citizens deported, and protesters murdered with impunity, it’s legislative malpractice and moral failure for congressional defenders of democracy not to use the funding deadline’s leverage to stop the lawlessness and terror Trump’s secret police have unleashed on our communities.

 Thank you for taking this first step. Now you must hold out for meaningful reforms. No money for ICE or CBP without enforceable protections against all ICE/CBP illegal behavior, mistreatment and murder of citizens and immigrants, and the deplorable conditions of detention facilities(see list in background section) and the immediate removal of all those promoting these atrocities—Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons, and Rodney Scott (CBD Commissioner.

(1) Repealing ICE’s $75 billion and CBP $65 billion slush funds; (2) Significant reductions in detention/removal funding; (3) Limiting use of guns/military equipment during civil actions and codifying clear use-of-force standard for all agents; (4) Restricting CBP activity to the border, not our cities; (5) Congressional investigations of every ICE /CBP who’s broken the law and every death in their custody; (6) Required federal cooperation with state/local investigations into ICE/CBP misconduct; Ending agents’ qualified immunity; (6) Allowing citizens to sue agents for civil rights violations; (7) Ending family detention; (8) Addressing detention facilities overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and lack of adequate food and medical care; (9) Banning masks and requiring they display clear identification; (10) Banning arrests or home searches without judicial warrants; (11) Banning enforcement at schools, day cares, hospitals, houses of worship, courthouses, and other sensitive locations; (12) Banning targeting based on race, language, accent, place of employment or location at time of apprehension; (13) Meaningful, enforceable penalties for violation of these bans and for obstructing congressional oversight of detention facilities; (14) Removal of Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons and Rodney Scott (CBP Commissioner) from their jobs.