WASHINGTON, D.C. - On June 9, 2026, Congresswoman Alma S. Adams, Ph.D. (NC-12) voted against the passage of the latest Republican reconciliation package that would allocate roughly $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP).

"I am not blind to the chaos ICE brings to every city it enters," said Congresswoman Adams. "Lives have been lost, businesses closed, and families split apart. When ICE and CBP came to Charlotte, a record 20,000 children were absent from school. There is no chance I would have voted to provide the president with a $70 billion check to continue terrorizing our communities."

Reconciliation is a unique process used to pass certain budget related bills through Congress with a simple majority vote.

Federal appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security were signed into law on April 30^th of this year after a historically long department shutdown, but none of that funding was allocated to ICE or CBP.

Before 2025, ICE maintained an annual budget of roughly $10 billion. House Rule 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) allocated an extra $75 billion to ICE for the expansion of its workforce, detention facilities, and enforcement operations over the next four years. The new reconciliation package directs another $70 billion ICE, U.S. Border Patrol, and the Office of the Secretary budget over the next 3 years.

"This reconciliation package is a partisan bill that does nothing to address the needs of American taxpayers,"continued Congresswoman Adams."Not only will it pave the way for more corruption the bill does nothing to prohibit budget allocations for an 'anti-weaponization' slush fund, but it will give the Trump administration more inhumane deportation power with lower guardrails and less accountability."

ICE has arrested more than 6,000 people in North Carolina since Trump took office last January. 1,300 of those arrests occurred in November of 2025 during Operation Charlotte's Web, a week-long immigration enforcement campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Congresswoman Alma Adams and other North Carolina officials have demanded answers from DHS over the purpose and results of the raids but have not received a response.

"Our demands for reform - restrictions on face coverings, required body cameras for immigration enforcement agents, and clearer use-of-force standards - have been ignored. ICE remains unaccountable to congressional oversight. Until I have my questions and demands met, I will not vote to approve this funding for ICE and CBP," finished Congresswoman Adams.