‘I Failed’: House Democrat Who Voted To Fund ICE Publicly Apologizes

Democratic New York Rep. Tom Suozzi voiced regret on Monday after crossing party lines to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week.

Suozzi, a centrist Democrat representing a House district President Donald Trump won in 2024, apologized for voting Thursday to fund federal immigration enforcement following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol officer on Saturday. The New York lawmaker was just one of seven House Democrats who bucked party leadership to support the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill funding ICE, Border Patrol and many other of the department’s agencies in a 210-207 vote.

“I failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis,” Suozzi said in a statement posted to social media. “I hear the anger from my constituents, and I take responsibility for that. I have long been critical of ICE’s unlawful behavior and I must do a better job demonstrating that.”

The DHS spending bill would fund the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the remainder of the fiscal year. The legislation also kept funding for ICE flat at $10 billion and doled out $18 billion to Customs and Border Protection.

Republicans — and some Democrats — pointed out that failing to pass the DHS bill would hurt non-immigration agencies more while ICE could continue its operations due to a $75 billion infusion the agency received in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.