WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Building the border wall. Increasing detention capacity. Hiring thousands of immigration agents. <\/p>\n
The budget bill narrowly approved<\/a> by the Senate on Tuesday includes massive funding infusions \u2014 roughly $150 billion \u2014 toward immigration and border enforcement. If passed, the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act\u201d will cement Trump\u2019s hard-line legacy on immigration. <\/p>\n The budget bill would make Immigration and Customs Enforcement the highest-funded law enforcement agency<\/a> in the federal government, exceeding its current yearly $3.4-billion detention budget many times over. It also would impose fees on immigration services that were once free or less expensive and make it easier for local law enforcement to work with federal authorities on immigration.<\/p>\n The 940-page Senate bill will now head back to the House, which passed its version in May, also by one vote, 215-214. The two chambers must now reconcile the two versions of the bill.<\/p>\n Though the legislation is still evolving, the immigration provisions in the House and Senate versions are similar and not subject to the intense debates on other issues, such as Medicaid or taxes. <\/p>\n Many of the funds would be available for four years, though some have longer or shorter timelines. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that, if enacted, the bill would increase the deficit<\/a> by nearly $3.5 trillion over the next 10 years. <\/p>\n Here are key elements concerning immigration:<\/p>\n Border wall<\/p>\n This includes construction and installation of barrier sections, building access roads, and barrier-related technology, such as cameras, lights and sensors. The legislation doesn\u2019t reference specific locations. <\/p>\n Trump, in his first term, repeatedly vowed that Mexico would pay for the wall. It didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Staffing<\/p>\n Trump has said he wants to hire 10,000 ICE agents, as well as 3,000 Border Patrol agents. <\/p>\n Detention<\/p>\n The bill allows for families pending a removal decision to be detained indefinitely. Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, called that a blatant violation of the so-called Flores settlement agreement, which has been in place since 1977 and limits the amount of time children can legally be detained to 20 days. <\/p>\n Local assistance<\/p>\n Altman said: \u201cYou can think of it like a gift for [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott.\u201d <\/p>\n Immigration fees<\/p>\n The stated fees are minimums \u2014 the bill allows for annual increases and, for many, prohibits waivers based on financial need. <\/p>\n \u201cThe paradox of a fee for an employment authorization document is that you\u2019re not allowed to work, but you need to pay for the fee,\u201d said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. <\/p>\n Altman noted that imposing a yearly fee on asylum seekers for their pending applications punishes people for the U.S. government\u2019s own backlogged system, which is out of the applicant\u2019s control. <\/p>\n Other sections exclude lawfully present immigrants, such as refugees and those granted asylum, from benefits including Medicare, Medicaid and the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP). Another provision excludes children from the Child Tax Credit if their parent lacks a Social Security number. <\/p>\n Praise and scorn<\/p>\n Altman, whose organization has closely tracked the immigration aspects of the funding bill, said people can look at the bill two ways: big picture \u2014 as a $150-billion infusion to supercharge what the Trump administration has already started \u2014 or surgically, as a series of policy changes that will not be easy to undo \u201cand make an already corrupt system subject to even fewer safeguards and really go after people\u2019s most basic needs.\u201d <\/p>\n Bush-Joseph had a different view. She said the funding reinforces an outdated and inflexible immigration system without fundamentally changing it. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why there\u2019s all this money going to the border even though there aren\u2019t a lot of people coming now,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Money alone won\u2019t change things overnight, said Bush-Joseph. It takes time to hire people and to open detention facilities. Immigration judges will still have a massive backlog of cases. And getting foreign countries to agree to accept more deportees is tricky. <\/p>\n \u201cArresting and detaining people with private contractors doesn\u2019t get you to an agreement from El Salvador to take five more planes per week,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n
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