House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8) told reporters Democrats will pursue an aggressive agenda when they take control of the House, and much of it will be focused on opposing President Donald Trump.
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While addressing reporters on Monday, he was asked what Democrats will do after they take over — especially when it comes to immigration.
“We have a broken immigration system,” Jeffries said. “It needs to be fixed in a comprehensive way, and in divided government, it needs to be fixed in a bipartisan way.”
The lawmaker continued, declaring that Democrats would push back against the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
House Democrats have taken the position that we’re not going to give a dime to the administration’s violent mass deportation machine because taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not brutalize or kill American citizens and violently target law-abiding immigrant communities and families, which is what has happened over the last 2 years. That’s unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-American, and it needs to come to an end.
🚨WATCH: Asked about President Trump’s offer to work with Democrats on immigration, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) says “we’re not going to give a dime to the administration’s violent mass deportation machine.” https://t.co/UsQ3GRa6YW
— Off The Press (@OffThePress1) November 9, 2026
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This isn’t the first time Jeffries vowed to pull funding from the White House’s immigration enforcement actions. While speaking with reporters back in October, he said “we need dramatic change in terms of the extreme immigration enforcement policies that have been inhumanely unleashed on the American people and hardworking immigrant families.”
He added, “And one of the things that we’ve done in this Congress is continue to make clear that Donald Trump‘s violent mass deportation machine does not get a dime. And it does not get a dime because it’s inconsistent with the American values that have made our country exceptional.”
We just hit 17 straight months of a secure border, and Hakeem Jeffries is vowing to defund ICE and reverse enforcement if Democrats win the midterms. “The mass deportation machine does not get a dime.” That mass deportation machine is lowering rents, raising wages, and making American communities safer, @hakeemjeffries.
— Jenn Pellegrino 🇺🇸 (@JennPellegrino) October 16, 2026
Democrats plan to redirect the $75 billion provided to ICE last year through 2029 to other priorities.
The lawmaker also said he is hoping to get enough Republican support to force a floor vote on the American Dream and Promise Act, which would grant permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and those receiving Temporary Protected Status.
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President Donald Trump waved away concerns that he might support a bill that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens. “We have a very strong deportation policy,” he said, also affirming that “There is no amnesty.”
.@POTUS: “There’s NO AMNESTY… My policy hasn’t changed.” pic.twitter.com/UcGKkH93oc
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 9, 2026
Jeffries also publicly supported an impeachment resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and vowed that Democrats would refuse to work with incoming White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who created the Trump administration’s deportation policy.
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