Republicans on the US House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee universally voted against an amendment on Wednesday that would have prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from using federal funds to detain or deport US citizens.

Democratic Representative Pramila Jayapal from Washington proposed the amendment to a budget bill, which was approved in the House of Representatives on April 10. She stated that since President Donald Trump began his second term, “a troubling pattern has emerged with US citizens being detained by immigration authorities,” citing numerous examples over the past few months. Jayapal described this trend as “unconstitutional, dangerous, and fundamentally wrong.”

Representative Eric Swalwell of California described the vote as one of the “most shocking things he had seen” and said that he and his Democratic colleagues were “stunned.” In the same session, the House Judiciary Committee advanced numerous legislative measures aimed at curbing immigration, such as earmarking $45 billion to detain 100,000 migrants as well as funding for the removal of one million migrants per year.

The amendment vote followed numerous clashes between the courts and the Trump administration over the right to detain and deport individuals from the US. For example, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a man deported to El Salvador without due process, and federal judges have recently ordered the release of a detained Palestinian Columbia University student and prohibited the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelans. The Trump administration has shown readiness to push back on such decisions.

This vote leaves the door open for further disputes between the government and the courts over the constitutional rights of US citizens, particularly under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution.