How Kansas & Missouri lawmakers voted on ICE funding amid federal crackdown
Kansas and Missouri lawmakers voted along party lines on legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security amid fury over the Trump administration’s aggressive ICE crackdown on American cities and a pair of fatal shootings in Minneapolis.
All nine Republican U.S. House members in both states voted in favor of the bill last week, which would fund DHS and ICE. Meanwhile, the three Democratic lawmakers from Kansas and Missouri voted against the package.
The legislation, which passed the House on a vote of 220 to 207, now heads to the U.S. Senate, where its future is less certain. The Senate’s failure to pass the package before Saturday risks a looming government shutdown that has roiled Congress and sparked furious negotiations.
The funding package comes amid outrage over the Trump administration’s use of federal immigration agents to quell dissent in cities across the country. The recent shooting deaths of former Kansas City resident Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti have sparked calls to defund ICE, the immigration agency at the center of the chaos.
While the nation watches the unraveling in Minnesota in real time, the votes in Washington — which came two days before Pretti’s death — fell along predictable party lines. The Star reached out to every House member and senator in both Kansas and Missouri to explain their votes — or how they planned to vote.
Of the 16 lawmakers, five responded. None of the four GOP senators whose pending votes will be pivotal in determining the fate of the funding bill responded.
Kansas City’s longtime Democratic congressman, in a statement issued after his vote, said that his Republican colleagues in Congress had failed to rein in the Trump administration.
“While I have long supported comprehensive immigration reform that will strengthen border security in conjunction with upholding America’s tradition of welcoming hardworking immigrants, I cannot support the continuation of chaos that this agency is creating in communities nationwide,” said U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat. “Therefore, I voted against the funding bill.”
Cleaver’s Democratic colleague in Kansas, Rep. Sharice Davids, pointed directly at the violence in Minneapolis as justification for opposing the $10 billion infusion for ICE.
“I support the investments in law enforcement training, fentanyl prevention, and disaster relief, but I could not vote for this bill without proper oversight and a real focus on public safety — especially after the recent killing of an American citizen in her own neighborhood,” said Davids, the lone Democratic member of Kansas’ congressional delegation.
In practice, Davids said, the appropriations bill pulls resources away from local law enforcement, drug enforcement and terrorism prevention efforts.
“That makes communities less safe,” she said. “We should be supporting local law enforcement and focusing on violent criminals, not our neighbors and families.”
Across the political aisle, U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, a Missouri Republican, said funding DHS was “the right thing to do.” Alford argued that his constituents support funding for DHS, which would include money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Coast Guard and “President Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”
Alford went on to suggest that Pretti, without naming him, was to blame for his death at the hands of a federal Border Patrol agent over the weekend. As the nation awaits the results of an investigation into Pretti’s death, Alford said two things were clear.
“First, when individuals violate the law by obstructing the work of federal law enforcement, they put themselves at risk,” he said. “Second, when state and local officials incite chaos by encouraging people to obstruct federal law enforcement, chaos is exactly what they will get.”
Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican whose district includes areas north of Kansas City and covers a broad swath of northern Missouri, also touted the legislation in a statement to The Star.
“Defunding Homeland Security, defunding the police, and defunding immigration law enforcement officers are all terrible ideas,” Graves said. “A partial government shutdown like this wouldn’t just defund immigration law enforcement officers, which is a terrible idea, but it would also defund FEMA, the Coast Guard, TSA, and the Secret Service. Defunding DHS is dangerous and irresponsible.”
Over in Kansas, Republican Rep. Derek Schmidt defended his vote supporting the bill in a Monday social media post where he expressed concern about the actions of federal law enforcement in Minnesota and asserted that the new funding would promote accountability.
“The events in Minnesota are distressing — both senior state officials’ refusal to cooperate with federal authorities to enforce the law and the reported actions of some federal officials,” Schmidt wrote, going on to call for a “transparent and thorough review” of the officer-involved shootings.
“I encourage swift enactment of the provisions I voted for last week in the Homeland Security appropriations bill to fund ICE and CBP body cameras and expand deescalation training,” Schmidt said.
How They Voted:
A yes vote means the lawmakers voted to pass the ICE spending bill.
Kansas
Rep. Sharice Davids (D) — No
Rep. Ron Estes (R) — Yes
Rep. Tracey Mann (R) — Yes
Rep. Derek Schmidt (R) — Yes
Missouri
Rep. Mark Alford (R) — Yes
Rep. Wesley Bell (D) — No
Rep. Eric Burlison (R) — Yes
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) — No
Rep. Sam Graves (R) — Yes
Rep. Bob Onder (R) — Yes
Rep. Jason Smith (R) — Yes
Rep. Ann Wagner (R) — Yes
This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 1:51 PM.
