For Immediate Release

Independent Candidate for Illinois’s 4th District Demands Senate Block Funding and Calls for Accountability as House Republicans Push Through Billions for ICE

Chicago, IL — Mayra Macías, independent candidate for Illinois’s 4th Congressional District, issued a statement following the fatal shooting of a 51-year-old man by federal agents in Minneapolis. This latest tragedy occurs just weeks after the killing of Renee Nicole Good and amid a massive, controversial federal operation in the Twin Cities.

Just this week, House Republicans narrowly passed a funding bill to provide billions to an increasingly militarized and unaccountable ICE. The bill now moves to the Senate, where a vote is expected as early as next week. Macías, a lifelong Democrat and Back of the Yards native running as an independent to ensure voters have a real choice this November, released the following statement:

How many more lives must be lost at the hands of ICE before we finally demand their removal from our communities?

We know the pattern: it is only a matter of time before the White House attempts to gaslight the public into believing this death was justified. But no amount of political spin can obscure the truth — our government is killing its own people.

The time for incremental reform has passed; we must defund and dismantle ICE. Our Senators cannot, in good conscience, vote for any funding bill that gives this agency another penny. We must keep the pressure on our elected officials. We cannot, and will not, let this death be in vain.