Bread for the City stands in solidarity with each and every person, organization, and community resisting the unnecessary occupation in Minnesota. We stand with immigrants and those unduly targeted by this administration across the nation. We stand with the teachers protecting their students, the mutual aid organizations distributing meals, diapers, and rent from neighbor to neighbor, and the people standing up for justice at a time when doing so could cost them everything.

At Bread for the City, we believe that public dollars should be invested where they do the most good: keeping people healthy, fed, and housed; enabling full participation in community and family life, protecting the  freedom to seek liberty; and supporting the pursuit of happiness. Instead, we have seen federal budget priorities that reflect punishment over care and communities paying the price. At a time when families are choosing between groceries and medical care, federal spending should prioritize the needs of the community.

Instead, even when millions of people in the United States are struggling to afford food and meet basic needs, the current administration is seeking to increase spending on Immigrations, Customs, and Enforcement’s (ICE) budget, which has already grown substantially over the past two decades. We are deeply concerned by this continued federal investment in immigration enforcement at the expense of programs that keep families healthy and stable. The historic cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, codified in a budget reconciliation bill over the summer, are expected to cause widespread harm, not only to the more than 40 million people who receive SNAP benefits and the more than 10 million who are expected to become newly uninsured due to cuts to Medicaid, but will also stress a healthcare and safety net system already over burdened. We demand relief. The question is not whether resources exist. It’s whether we are investing in them where they save lives and strengthen communities.

At the same time that elected officials are debating public spending, people across the country are taking to the streets and asking to have their voices heard. In response to ICE’s brutality, they are defending their neighbors, providing meals to those too scared to leave their homes, and patrolling school pick-up lines. And they are putting themselves at risk as armed and masked agents of the state – many with inadequate training – threaten and harass them, occupy their communities, and even execute them, some publicly and some behind the closed doors of detention centers.

The removal of ICE from Minnesota, which is taking place after large-scale community organizing, is not enough. ICE is not law abiding and does not provide safety and security for our communities. Instead, ICE is used as a weapon of the state and by an administration seeking to dismantle people’s rights. We call for the abolishment of the agency.

These community organizers are showing us what public budgets should reflect: our shared values. And first among those values is care for one another. 

Every day in Bread for the City’s health centers and food pantries, we see the consequences of chronic underfunding of essential services. Parents skip meals so their children can eat. Patients delay care until preventable conditions become medical emergencies. Families face impossible choices between rent, groceries, and medical care. These are not personal failures, they are failures of public policy.

These failures represent a misalignment of public funds and public values. Even in the face of growing need, the current administration continues to prioritize detention and enforcement systems that are harmful, costly, and ineffective at building safe communities all while underfunding healthcare and food assistance programs. Withholding funds does not make these problems disappear. It pushes them into emergency rooms and crisis systems already overrun. As we prepare for the impacts of funding cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, food pantries and community medical centers, like Bread for the City, worry about having to turn people away. This imbalance is not accidental and it does not impact everyone equally. Immigration enforcement has a long history of disproportionately targeting Black and brown communities, separating families, and creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation – an atmosphere that keeps people from seeking healthcare, food assistance, and other support. The expansion of ICE has further deepened racial inequities by criminalizing poverty and immigration while diverting resources away from the very communities most harmed by systemic racism.

We cannot support a police state and unlawful occupation, here in DC or anywhere. We reject the false choice between safety and compassion. And we must speak out about taxpayer dollars funding these harmful approaches, especially when healthcare premiums and the cost of living are both on the rise. True public safety is community-led and rooted in stable housing, accessible healthcare, and economic opportunity. Investments in these areas are proven to improve health outcomes, strengthen communities, and reduce long-term public costs. Funding these priorities is not only a better return on investment, but also creates stronger and safer communities. Detention and enforcement do the opposite: destabilize families, harm mental and physical health, and drain resources from solutions that work.

Bread for the City calls on policymakers to reimagine federal priorities and to repurpose funding away from ICE towards healthcare, food security, and poverty alleviation. In the most resourced nation on Earth, we have the funds to ensure that everyone can live with dignity. What is required now is the political will to invest in care over unnecessary punishment, and in communities over systems that perpetuate harm.

Budgets are more than numbers on paper. They are moral documents. It is time for ours to reflect what the millions of people marching on the streets are demanding: freedom from persecution, human dignity, racial justice, and true safety.