Dear Neighbor, 

As you may know, I am a son of immigrants. My parents came to the United States over 40 years ago as refugees from a small country in East Africa called Eritrea. And as naturalized citizens, they never took for granted the incredible freedoms the United States gave them and their family. 

As a child of immigrants, and a father of two young children, I am outraged at the Trump administration’s attacks on the immigrant community and the flagrant violations of our constitution.

And like all of you, I am sickened and horrified by the murder yesterday of Alex Pretti — an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center — by an ICE agent.

The sheer cruelty and violence of the Trump administration’s actions, from Minneapolis to right here in Colorado, shock the conscience of every American.

Let me be clear — the lawlessness and cruelty being perpetrated against the American people must end. 

That is why last week, I voted AGAINST funding for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. And I firmly believe that the U.S. Senate must do the same, and block the bill this week. Full stop.

Members of Congress cannot sit idly by as the Trump administration’s cruel and reckless immigration policies unleash chaos on communities across the country. We cannot allow this to continue to go on unchecked, which is why blocking the funding bill referenced above is so critical, as is prevailing in my pending Federal lawsuit against the Department (Neguse et al. v. ICE et al.). 

As a former impeachment prosecutor in Trump’s second impeachment, I also understand well the importance of accountability — which is why I believe we must proceed with impeachment proceedings against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. 

Earlier this week, I led the opposition to the ICE funding bill during our debate in the House Rules Committee. You can view some of the exchanges below — including my exposé on the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that Republicans' funding proposal has given to for-profit prison companies. As I said during the proceedings, some of the largest private prison companies are making massive profits through the slush fund and “detention industrial complex” that my Republican colleagues have created.

This is not just shameful — it is reprehensible, and it is why I’m leading a legislative effort in Congress to ban for-profit detention completely.

Last Wednesday marked 16 years since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, which opened our elections to unlimited dark money. I was proud to lead my colleagues in delivering a clarion call on the House floor to finally confront political corruption and clean up government through a proposed constitutional amendment that I’ve authored, H.J.Res. 122 (which now has 64 cosponsors!).

In my view, Citizens United undermined what it means to be a country of the people, by the people, and for the people. This is unacceptable. Which is why I introduced legislation to overturn the ruling, ensure transparency through campaign finance reform, and prevent unrestrained spending and dark money in our elections. 

👀 Watch my speech below to learn more about this effort.

In case you missed it, our office was thrilled to host a Passport Fair in Boulder to help make the process of renewing or applying for a passport as easy and efficient as possible. 

Joined by staff from the Colorado Passport Agency, our team assisted 115 constituents in just one afternoon — helping Coloradans prepare for upcoming travel with less stress and fewer barriers.