Republicans seek to cement Trump's immigration legacy in sweeping bill

Reuters

4 days ago

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - A sweeping tax and spending bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would devote an estimated $150 billion to immigration enforcement, an unprecedented sum that seeks to deliver President Donald Trump's goal of mass deportations and lock down the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill would provide funding for 10,000 new immigration enforcement officers and $46.5 billion for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border while placing new fees on applications for asylum and other humanitarian protections.
The legislation amounts to super-funding immigration enforcement and could equip the administration with tools to ramp up arrests and deportations.
Mark Green, chairman of the U.S. House homeland security committee, touted the legislation after its passage, saying it could "secure our nation's borders for generations to come.'
The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate where Republicans, who control the chamber by a 53-47 margin, hope to pass it by July 4. The measure is estimated to increase the federal deficit by trillions, which has raised alarms among some fiscal hawks, while other Republicans have worries about cutting Medicaid, a low-income health program, which offsets some of the massive enforcement spending.
The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border hit record lows after Trump took office in January, which could undercut the rationale for more border barriers.
Senator Rand Paul, the top Republican on the Senate homeland committee and a fiscal conservative, told Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a hearing last week that $46.5 billion for a border wall was too much.
'You're controlling 95% of the border without a wall right now,' Paul said. 'So that's an argument that maybe you don't need a wall. You need willpower.'
In an interview this week, Trump's border czar Tom Homan said the administration had deported around 200,000 people over four months. The total still appears to lag deportations during a similar period under former President Joe Biden, whose Democratic administration had 257,000 deportations from February-May 2024, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security statistics.
Biden-era deportations included more recent border crossers due to high levels of illegal immigration.
Homan said the administration needs more funding to deliver the historic levels of deportations that Trump promised on the campaign trail.
'I hope Congress comes together and funds what the American people demanded,' he said.
The House bill imposes new fees that target immigrants in the U.S. illegally, including asylum seekers. A new fee on asylum applications would cost at least $1,000 with another $550 for a six-month work authorization. The American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration advocacy group, estimates asylum seekers could pay nearly $6,500 over five years.
Parents and other family members who attempt to take custody of unaccompanied migrant children would be required to pay a $3,500 fee along with another $5,000 deposit to ensure the child attends immigration court hearings, totaling $8,500.
Nayna Gupta, policy director with the American Immigration Council, said the high fees for asylum and other humanitarian statuses 'effectively put those legal pathways out of reach for thousands of people who would otherwise legally qualify.'
During Trump's first term in 2020, his administration tried to impose a fee on asylum applications but was blocked by a federal judge.
Ken Cuccinelli, who served as a top homeland official at the time, said the fees are needed to deter economic migrants. Without fees on asylum applications, other legal immigration applicants shoulder the cost of processing asylum seekers, he said.
'If asylum seekers aren't paying these fees, then other visa requestors are paying them," he said.
The bill overall would increase the federal deficit by $3.8 trillion over a decade, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, largely due to tax cuts.
The White House contested the analysis and said the legislation would not increase the deficit. Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the bill would support Trump's efforts to combat illegal immigration "and make this progress permanent."
In an effort to provide some revenue, Republicans included a 5% tax on remittances to other countries for non-citizens.
However, remittances could decline due to the tax and senders could seek ways to avoid it, according to a report by the Center for Global Development, a nonpartisan think tank.
'Even if the tax works as intended, it will only bring in a small fraction of the roughly $150 billion in funding included in the measure for border security and immigration enforcement,' the report said.
The bill will be subject to review by the Senate Parliamentarian, who advises on the chamber's rules, to determine whether any parts exceed the bounds of this specific budget process.
One provision that could be scrutinized would limit the ability of federal judges to penalize U.S. officials for contempt if they fail to abide by a judge's order. The Trump administration has clashed with federal judges in various standoffs over immigration enforcement.
Democratic U.S. Representative Joe Neguse at a hearing last week called the provision 'a deep deviation from existing federal law.'