Defeating Immigration Attacks On Reconciliation By Highlighting What Americans Lose

This memo provides Members of Congress with effective messaging strategies for the budget reconciliation battle when defending against attacks on immigration. The current administration is diverting billions from essential American services to fund a mass family separation agenda. By explicitly highlighting what Americans stand to lose—healthcare, food security, economic stability, and public safety—Members can successfully counter this approach and gain support among the public.

Recent polling confirms that the administration’s immigration policies become dramatically unpopular when voters understand their real-world consequences. This memo outlines a strategic messaging framework to expose these trade-offs and position Members as defenders of American families, communities, and values.

CORE STRATEGY: EXPOSING THE PAINFUL TRADE-OFFS

The central message is simple: Every dollar spent on mass deportation and family separation is taken directly from American families, communities, and priorities. The administration is creating a false choice between funding family separation and supporting essential services Americans rely on.

The Trade-Offs Made Explicit: 

To pay for the unprecedented $175 billion for immigration and border enforcement that would fund detention camps and line the pockets of private prison companies Congress would have to slash funding for key essential programs:

REBUTTAL MESSAGE #1: AMERICANS LOSE BASIC NEEDS TO FUND FAMILY SEPARATION

Main Message: The proposed budget strips healthcare and food assistance from millions of vulnerable Americans—including children, seniors, and disabled citizens—to fund a mass deportation agenda that separates families, targeting parents, spouses, and workers who’ve lived here for decades. Americans reject this cruel trade-off that harms our own communities.

Key Facts:

• Healthcare Cuts: $880 billion slashed from Medicaid to help fund $88 billion annual deportation and family separation costs
  • 4.2 million Americans immediately lose coverage; 21 million at risk
  • Affects 31.5 million children, 8.3 million seniors, and 9.1 million disabled Americans
• Food Security Cuts: $230 billion eliminated from SNAP to expand mass deportations
  • 9 million fewer people receiving monthly food assistance
  • 4 million children at risk of hunger
  • Daily food benefits reduced to just $5.00 per person

REBUTTAL MESSAGE #2: AMERICANS LOSE ECONOMIC PROSPERITY TO FUND FAMILY SEPARATION

Main Message: The administration’s mass deportation and family separation policies are causing economic turmoil, worker shortages, and higher prices for American consumers. By removing millions of hardworking taxpayers who contribute to our economy, the administration is sacrificing America’s prosperity to pursue an ideological agenda that most voters reject.

As we saw the last several weeks in DC, TN, and NJ and elsewhere, ICE raids are harming businesses and creating a chilling effect on workers as one restaurant owner in TN said: “Events at the Ryman, Ascend, the Savannah Bananas’ baseball game all let out, and it was crazy busy. But there was no one in the kitchen to cook the food.”

Key Facts:

• Economic Impact: $1.7 trillion potential reduction in GDP from mass deportation of workers
• Job Losses: 88,000 native-born Americans lose jobs for every 1 million undocumented workers deported
• Workforce Reduction: 18,600 workers lost monthly if DACA protections end and deportations begin
• Industry Damage: Critical shortages in construction, agriculture, hospitality, and healthcare sectors

REBUTTAL MESSAGE #3: AMERICANS LOSE SAFETY TO FUND FAMILY SEPARATION

Main Message: While fentanyl flows across our border and cybercriminals target our infrastructure, the administration has pulled every single Homeland Security investigator (HSI) off these threats to instead focus on deporting and separating families of landscapers, construction workers, and food service employees. And more recently the Administration has instructed the FBI to prioritize immigration enforcement which will likely reduce federal law enforcement resources devoted to counterterrorism and counterintelligence:

“This is not what we do, these are bad ideas,” the [FBI] official said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing fear of retaliation. “If this was a Democrat administration, I’d be saying this is bad, we shouldn’t be doing this.” 

As one HSI agent told USA Today: 

“He said he fears the wholesale redeployment of agents will have a devastating effect on ongoing investigations and prosecutions that require their continued assistance. “Imagine one of these guys having to tell a prosecutor, ‘Hey I can’t make it to court to testify on your case because I’m at the border’” looking for undocumented immigrants.

Key Facts:

• Policy Choice: Divert all 6,000 HSI agents from critical investigations to mass deportation operations and force FBI agents to dedicate more time to immigration enforcement. 
• American Impact: Reduced enforcement against fentanyl trafficking, child exploitation, and cyberattacks
• Persuasive Detail: Multi-year cartel investigations abandoned to pursue deportation of non-criminal immigrants

PUBLIC OPINION: SUPPORT FOR MASS DEPORTATION COLLAPSES WHEN DETAILS EMERGE

Polling consistently shows that while Americans may express mixed feelings about immigration policy in general, support for mass deportation collapses when voters learn specific details about who is being targeted and the human impact:

Support Erodes When Details Are Provided

• Wall Street Journal (April): Support for deportations drops dramatically from 53% to just 33% when deportation targets are described as long-settled, law-abiding taxpayers
• Quinnipiac (April): 42% approve, 53% disapprove of the administration’s handling of deportations
• Fox News (April): 48-47% disapproval on immigration policies overall
• YouGov/Economist (March-April):
  • 12-point drop in immigration policy approval overall
  • Dramatic 31-point swing among Hispanic voters (from slight approval to strong disapproval)

Americans Reject Specific Deportation Scenarios

• Pew Research (March):
  • 78% oppose deporting spouses of U.S. citizens
  • 68% oppose deporting Dreamers
  • 60% oppose deporting undocumented parents of U.S. citizens

Americans Value Due Process and Careful Solutions

• YouGov (April): 61-26% oppose deportation without due process
• CBS/YouGov (March): 71% say it’s unacceptable if legal U.S. residents are mistakenly detained
• Economist/YouGov: 76-24% prefer careful problem-solving over fast, error-prone deportation

Public Prefers Balanced Approach

• CNN Exit Poll (2024): 56-40% prefer legalization over deportation
• AP VoteCast: 55-40% for legalization
• American Electorate Voter Poll (2024): 60-40% favor candidates offering a path to citizenship

Key Takeaway: Mass deportation is a political mirage—initial support evaporates when voters understand the policy’s details, targets, and human consequences.

IMPLEMENTATION GUIDANCE

1. Make It Local: Provide district-specific numbers on healthcare and food assistance recipients and uplift human impact stories in your state. 
2. Humanize Both Sides: Highlight both American families losing services and long-settled, deeply rooted, immigrant families being separated
3. Use Public Safety Frame: Emphasize how diverting security resources from violent crime makes all communities less safe
4. Present Better Solutions: Contrast mass removal and family separation funding with actual solutions such as: investments in border technology; targeted enforcement against public safety threats; legal pathways for families and needed workers; humanitarian protection, and an earned path to citizenship for long-established immigrants.

CONCLUSION

The reconciliation battle offers Members a powerful opportunity to effectively counter the immigration argument by highlighting what Americans stand to lose. When voters understand that funding mass deportation and family separation means cutting healthcare, reducing food assistance, compromising public safety, and damaging economic prosperity, support for the administration’s approach collapses.

By consistently connecting these dots and emphasizing the real-world impacts on American families and communities, Members can successfully counter the administration’s immigration agenda and position themselves on the side of practical solutions that strengthen America rather than false choices that weaken it.