Gathered outside the Detroit offices of U.S. Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, a few dozen protesters weathered single-digit temperatures to demand that both Democratic senators stick to their stated promises to vote against a Department of Homeland Security package that would continue to fund ICE at its current levels, while also urging them to claw back funding that was appropriated to ICE in the 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Both senators have stated online that they will vote no on the funding bill, which could send the government into a partial shutdown if no funding agreement is reached by Friday.
Ashley Perry, a leader with Indivisible Downriver United 734, called on both senators to “stand firm” as the deadline to pass the bill approaches.
“Our big concern is that, last time this happened, eight senators buckled, and it was all for nothing because the healthcare vote came and went and nothing’s come of it,” Perry said, referring to the holdout by Congressional Democrats last fall around the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits. “When it comes to this, we don’t want the money to go through, because we don’t want this in our city, we don’t want it in any other city and we want it out of Minnesota and everywhere else.”
Signs at the protest also called out the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both killed by ICE agents in Minnesota. Jan. 28, 2026. | Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance.
The Homeland Security funding package, which totals $64.4 billion, was on track to pass with five other spending bills, until the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE agents — the second such killing in Minnesota since the start of 2026 — sparked a number of Senate Democrats to come out against the DHS funding.
Representatives from both Peters’s and Slotkin’s offices came to talk with protesters, who included Indivisible chapters from Western Wayne, Huron Valley and around the metro Detroit area.
“It lets us know that we’re being heard,” Perry said. ”They understand our concerns, and that means a lot to us because we do know how hard our senators and their office works.”
Angel White and Lee Yzquierdo, two of the protesters who spoke with representatives from Slotkin’s office, also emphasized that they were grateful to the office staff for having conversations with them.
“That felt really good, that they are listening to us even when we can’t get through the phone,” Yzquierdo, who said they have been met with a full voicemail box when trying to call Slotkin’s office, said.
Protest messages largely called for abolition of ICE. Jan. 28, 2026. | Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance.
Many of the attendees carried signs and chanted protest slogans calling for the total abolition of ICE as an agency — calls for which have only increased since the killings of Renee Good on Jan. 7 and Pretti on Jan. 24.
“I’m appalled at the violence of ICE and I don’t think anybody is fooled any longer that this is about immigration,” Sherri Masson, a leader for Indivisible Huron Valley, said. “This is about instilling fear into communities.”
Anti-ICE protesters gathered outside the office of Sen. Gary Peters in Detroit. Jan. 28, 2026. | Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance.
Masson expressed her appreciation that both senators have said they won’t vote for additional funding. However, she continued, she also wants her senators to know that she believes ICE should be abolished.
“They’ve already been funded beyond what they need to do any kind of immigration enforcement, which is not what they’re doing,” she continued. “We are here opposed entirely to ICE and the work that they’re doing. We’re here to ask our senators to stand up, even if it means shutting the government down because this is a time they have the opportunity, the leverage in the Senate now, to make that happen, and we want them to stand firm.”
Lawren Juip, a protester outside Slotkin’s office, called a vote against the DHS funding bill “the bare minimum” for Slotkin and Peters to do in standing up to ICE.
“I think ICE needs to be abolished. It’s younger than I am. You don’t need it,” she said. “I don’t think that the department as it exists today could be meaningfully reformed into something better.”
Protesters gathered along Michigan Ave. in Detroit to call on Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin to defund ICE. Jan. 28, 2026. | Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance.
Around Detroit, organizations around the city and beyond are sharing similar calls for legislators to block continued funding for ICE.
“This murder does not exist in isolation. It reflects a broader and deeply troubling pattern of violence carried out through government systems that Black, brown, and immigrant communities have been experiencing for generations,” Danielle Atkinson, executive director of Detroit-based nonprofit Mothering Justice, wrote in a press release. “As elected officials debate the future of ICE and Department of Homeland Security funding, this moment demands accountability, oversight, and honesty about the real human costs of these policies. More importantly, communities most impacted by ICE and DHS’s violence must be centered in any discussion about public safety, family well-being, and justice.”
