Alabama Senator Funds Trump’s Terror Squads

As the DHS appropriations bill appears to crash and burn, its lead negotiator, Katie Britt, remains the most powerful—and least mentioned—player on the Hill.

WASHINGTON — In the marble corridors of the Russell Senate Office Building, there is a particular kind of silence that precedes a storm. It is the silence of expertise—the quiet, methodical clicking of heels belonging to Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) as she navigates the institution she has known since her days as a young aide.

While the national media fixates on the fire-breathing rhetoric of the administration, Britt is doing something far more effective: she is building the infrastructure of the “mass deportation” era with the surgical precision of a veteran Hill operator. As the Chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, Britt isn’t just a participant in the current border theater; she is its primary financier and legislative engine.

The Shelby Protege at the Helm

To understand Britt’s effectiveness, one must look at her pedigree. Serving as Chief of Staff to the legendary former Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby provided her with an intimate map of the Senate’s “inner sanctum.” She understands the leverage of a subcommittee gavel, the weight of a well-placed rider, and the norms that can be bent—or broken—to move policy.

This institutional mastery was on full display with the Laken Riley Act. While Democrats like Mark Warner and Raphael Warnock initially signaled resistance to a bill that mandates detention for misdemeanors and empowers state attorneys general to sue the federal government, Britt’s relentless “texting and talking” campaign broke the dam. She leveraged the tragic death of a student in Warnock’s home state to corner him, eventually securing twelve Democratic votes for a bill that many advocates argue strip-mines due process for DACA recipients and minors.

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The FY2026 DHS Bill: A Blueprint for Harm

The Fiscal Year 2026 DHS Appropriations bill is Britt’s magnum opus, and for migrants, it is a horror show wrapped in legislative jargon. The document provides a staggering $17.7 billion to CBP and $10 billion to ICE, specifically carving out funds for:

• Mass Apprehension: Thousands of new police-type vehicles, drones, and autonomous surveillance systems designed to turn the border into a high-tech dragnet.

• Detention Expansion: Explicit authority for the Secretary to reprogram funds without standard limits to ensure “detention of aliens prioritized for removal.”

• The “Gringo” Collateral: Perhaps most chilling is the $20 million for body-worn cameras. While framed as “accountability,” this funding comes as the agents it bolsters are caught in viral videos involving the deaths of U.S. citizens—most notably the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.

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The Masked Operator

The most remarkable testament to Britt’s skill is her invisibility. As the DHS bill receives an avalanche of negative press for its “paramilitary” leanings and the “terror squads” of masked gunmen now appearing outside schools and churches, Britt’s name is rarely the headline. She operates in the “shelter of the norms,” letting the Secretary or the President take the heat while she quietly secures the $45 billion for detention capacity expansion.

On Newsmax, Britt recently defended these forces, blaming “Democratic rhetoric” for violence against agents. She stood in the Oval Office as the President viewed the video of the Renee Good shooting, emerging not with questions about the killing of an unarmed citizen, but with a renewed demand for enforcement.

Britt is no slouch. She is a serious mover of policy who has successfully reframed xenophobic hardlinerism as “common-sense security.” But as the bills she negotiates fund the very agents now accused of murdering citizens in the streets, the “traditions and norms” she cherishes are being used to dismantle the safety of the very communities she claims to protect.