Washington, DC —Early this morning, under cover of darkness, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a massive tax cut and budget bill. The impact is ugly and will turbocharge mass deportations and family separations and escalate the Trump efforts to flout judicial rulings, while slashing essential healthcare, food security, and economic assistance that vulnerable Americans rely on.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“The “big, beautiful bill” passed by the House of Representatives embodies the brazen manner in which the GOP and the Trump Administration are willing to sacrifice the well being of Americans– our healthcare, our education, our food security, our safety– to fund their virulent and made up fantasies on immigration. Let’s be clear: immigration needs to be managed but the answer is not to further criminalize our communities or line up the pockets of the prison and detention industry. Already, DHS manages the largest immigration detention system in the world. If this budget remains intact and becomes law, the harm and cost that we are already experiencing across our neighborhoods and our economy will be turbocharged to the detriment of all of us. We urge the Senate to reject this bill.”
Among the most disturbing components of the House bill include:
Turbocharging mass deportations and ICE funding at cost of vulnerable Americans’ healthcare and food security: As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council noted: “If this bill becomes law, ICE will become the best-resourced law enforcement agency in the history of the country, with more funding for detention than the entire federal Bureau of Prisons.”
To pay for the unprecedented $175 billion for immigration and border enforcement – to fund mass deportations and detentions of even long-settled workers and family members, while lining the pockets of private prison companies – Congress is set to slash funding for key essential programs that vulnerable Americans rely on, including:
- Slashing $880 billion from Medicaid, threatening healthcare for 21+ million Americans
- Slashing $230 billion from food assistance, affecting more than 9 million people monthly
- Slashing $350 billion from higher education assistance, meaning millions of Americans would be unable to afford college
And as a reminder, from solely the economic lens (beyond the human, family and community costs), mass deportations would result in an estimated $1.7 trillion potential reduction in GDP; the loss of 88,000 native-born American jobs for every 1 million undocumented workers deported; and critical shortages in construction, agriculture, hospitality, and healthcare sectors.
Emboldening Trump to ignore the rule of law and separation of powers
Among other disturbing provisions, the bill includes language that could create “nationwide legal pandemonium,” and “would let Trump skirt court orders,” as Democracy Docket phrased, by curtailing “when courts can force parties to comply with their orders.” The specific legislative language reads, “No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order.”
As Nicholas Riccardi of the Associated Press reported regarding the implications of including that language in the bill text, “the fact that GOP lawmakers are including it shows how much those in power in the nation’s capital are thinking about the consequences of defying judges as the battle between the Trump administration and the courts escalates.”
Resources:
- Read the budget breakdown from Adam Isaacson of WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) “$160 Billion to Detain and Deport: Congress’s “Reconciliation” Bill is a Betrayal of Priorities and Will Harm the Most Vulnerable”
- Read the American Immigration Council’s 2025 House Reconciliation Fact Sheet: “What’s in the 2025 House Reconciliation Bill? Immigration and Border Security Highlights”
- Read the National Immigration Law Center’s 2025 House Reconciliation Breakdown: “The House Reconciliation Bill Threatens Working Families and Our Democracy – NILC”
