Reforming ICE

Hey folks. A note from my team on my work this week. Have a good weekend. – MRW

Happy Friday from the Warner press office. Well, it was another chaotic week of disturbing actions from the Trump administration – from the heartbreaking news out of Minnesota that federal immigration agents had killed another American citizen, Alex Pretti, to a raid on an elections facility in Fulton County. Sen. Warner stayed engaged fighting for sensible reforms to ICE and pressed for answers on their attempts to set up a massive surveillance operation. He also raised the alarm about the threat that this administration poses to our elections.

Let’s get into all of that and more in this edition of the Warner Weekly Wrap-Up!

GOVERNMENT FUNDING

Over the weekend, federal immigration agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, just weeks after they killed Renee Macklin Good. It was an incredibly tragic incident, and a reminder that Trump’s out-of-control funding of ICE can have deadly consequences.

Today is also the deadline for Congress to pass the remaining six appropriations bills… including for the Department of Homeland Security, the department that contains ICE.

While much of ICE’s rapid growth and lawless activities were pre-funded in last year’s tax scam – a bill that Sen. Warner fought very hard to prevent – the outstanding set of bills contains operational funding for ICE that could be used to enable their lawlessness.

So following the tragic death of Alex Pretti, and knowing that DHS’s funding would be before him this week in the Senate, Sen. Warner spoke out. On Saturday morning, Sen. Warner said,

“Trump’s endless empowerment of federal immigration agents has resulted in yet another senseless killing. This brutal crackdown has to end. I cannot and will not vote to fund DHS while this administration continues these violent federal takeovers of our cities.”

And this week, Sen. Warner continued to make that case in the Senate, pressing for sensible reforms to ICE before he could support any funding for DHS.

He also released several videos on the situation, which you can watch on his YouTube here:

Sen. Warner and Senate Democrats’ fight seems to be working, as the administration seems willing to come to the table for a deal for some guardrails around ICE.

We will continue to keep you posted as these negotiations continue and as Congress votes to fund the rest of the government.

DHS IS MINING FOR DATA

This week, Sen. Warner cracked down on DHS’s surveillance tactics.

Using an unprecedented amount of funds from the Big Ugly Bill, DHS has been collecting sensitive personal data on citizens and non-citizens.

As DHS law enforcement continues a mass deportation campaign across the country that includes the use of excessive and deadly force on American citizens, Sen. Warner is seriously concerned that their collection and use of data is violating Fourth Amendment protections and other constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties.

That’s why Sens. Warner and Kaine sent a letter to DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari demanding answers to DHS’s procurement of data and surveillance practices.

The senators wrote, “…it is important that your office shine light on activities that undergird ICE’s enforcement actions including a muddled patchwork of technology procurements that have significantly expanded DHS’ ability to collect, retain, and analyze information about Americans. Together, ICE’s new information collection tools potentially enable DHS to circumvent the constitutional protections provided by the Fourth Amendment - protections guaranteed to all Americans and all persons within our borders.”

The senators also provided a detailed list of questions for Inspector General Cuffari to address in an investigation and urged that the findings be reported to their offices.

Read more about the letter that Sens. Warner and Kaine sent here.

A LINE CROSSED IN FULTON COUNTY

More than five years after the most scrutinized election in American history, President Donald Trump is still refusing to accept reality: he lost the 2020 election. Every recount confirmed it. Every court challenge failed. Trump’s own national security officials found no evidence of widespread fraud. And yet, now back in the White House, he is once again using the machinery of government to chase a conspiracy theory he has never been able to prove.

On Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was spotted in Fulton County, Georgia – personally present as the FBI executed a search warrant at the county’s election hub related to the 2020 election. Photographs showed the nation’s top intelligence official standing outside the facility and, inexplicably, inside an FBI evidence truck, raising immediate questions about whether the intelligence community is being politicized to serve Trump’s fixation on relitigating his loss.

As Chairman and now Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Warner has overseen and confirmed real election interference threats, including Russia’s massive intervention on behalf of Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and he made clear this week that Gabbard’s involvement crosses a dangerous line. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has no law enforcement authority and no operational role in domestic investigations. Its mandate is foreign intelligence, not ballot seizures years after an election has been certified, litigated, and upheld. In a statement, Warner said:

“There are only two explanations for why the Director of National Intelligence would show up at a federal raid tied to Donald Trump’s obsession with losing the 2020 election. Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus – in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns – or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy. Either is a serious breach of trust that further underscores why she is totally unqualified to hold a position that demands sound judgment, apolitical independence, and a singular focus on keeping Americans safe.”

Insisting on answers, Warner fired off a letter alongside House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Jim Himes (D-CT), demanding Gabbard immediately appear before their committees to explain her conduct.

“It is… deeply concerning that you participated in this domestic law enforcement action. The Intelligence Community should be focused on foreign threats and, as you yourself have testified, when those intelligence authorities are turned inwards the results can be devastating for Americans privacy and civil liberties.

“Given the politically fraught nature of elections for federal office, any federal efforts associated with combatting foreign election threats necessitate public transparency, prompt updating of Congressional intelligence committees, and clear commitment to non-partisan conduct. Your recent actions raise foundational questions about the current mission of your office, and it is critical that you brief the Committees immediately as part of your obligation to keep Congress fully and currently informed.”

In an interview with MS Now’s Jen Psaki, Warner also warned that Trump’s FBI raid in Fulton is not only about 2020, but about laying the groundwork to disrupt – and, if necessary, steal – the upcoming elections in 2026 and 2028:

“I now have to worry about a corrupted Department of Justice. I have to worry about an FBI run by Kash Patel. I have to worry about a cyber security agency that used to be very helpful. Now I don’t know whether we should actually encourage that federal help, because it may be politically biased. It may undermine the very integrity we were trying to sort through.”

Free and fair elections are the foundation of our democracy – how Americans make their voices heard, hold leaders accountable, and transfer power peacefully. Sen. Warner has spent his time in the Senate defending that principle, from confronting real foreign interference to standing up against efforts to weaponize government institutions. That’s why he is demanding accountability now: because while the outcome of 2020 will not change, the integrity of future elections still can. Sen. Warner will continue fighting to protect the independence of our elections, the rule of law, and the basic democratic truth that in America, the will of the voters – not conspiracy theories – decides who governs.

GRAB BAG

WARSH IT ALL DOWN: Sen. Warner released a statement on President Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to be Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

PROTECTING FEDERAL EMPLOYEES: Sen. Warner joined 11 of his Senate colleagues in urging the Trump Administration’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) against implementing a rule that would severely weaken longstanding civil service protections for federal probationary employees.

AIRLINE SAFETY: Sen. Warner introduced the FAA SMS Compliance Review Act of 2026 to improve the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) safety oversight and its ability to identify and address aviation safety issues.

A YEAR LATER: Sen. Warner released a statement on a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing announcing the agency’s findings from its year-long investigation into the deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) that took the lives of 67 people. He also joined Sen. Kaine in a statement commemorating the anniversary of the incident.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Senate will be in session next week. Votes will continue this afternoon and next week to fund the government and come to a final agreement on a DHS spending package.