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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A sweeping new spending package passed by Congress has ignited fierce backlash from civil rights advocates, immigrant rights groups, and progressive leaders.
The "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBB) expands funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while slashing key social safety net programs, including Medicaid and food assistance. The legislation is widely seen by the GOP as President Donald Trump's flagship domestic policy achievement, cementing his policy agenda.
The measure passed the House of Representatives by a narrow margin of 218–214, with all House Democrats voting against it and two Republicans breaking ranks.
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Proponents say the funds will hire thousands of ICE agents, increase detention capacity, and complete the border wall. Critics argue it will turbocharge an already aggressive deportation machine, deepen suffering for millions of families, and offer tax cuts to wealthy Americans.
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"In passing this bill, Congress is stripping lifesaving health care from millions of Americans to pay for an increasingly aggressive, dangerous, and obsessive deportation agenda," Sarah Mehta, Deputy Director of Government Affairs, ACLU, said in a statement shared with Newsweek.
"With over $170 billion, ICE will become the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S., with a bigger budget than most of the world's militaries. Armed with this funding, this administration will be able to multiply its violent raids and detain over 750,000 children, parents, and longtime residents in remote detention camps where, even now, people are dying."
Abigail Jackson, White House spokesperson, told Newsweek, "At this point, Newsweek is nothing more than a Democrat-propaganda outlet pumping out liberal press releases - how embarrassing. Every single one of these groups suffer from extreme cases of TDS. President Trump's One, Big, Beautiful Bill protects and preserves Medicaid for vulnerable Americans who rely on it by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in the program.
"The funding to secure our border and deport criminal illegal aliens is the fulfillment of President Trump's campaign promise and the mandate the American people gave him when they sent him back to the White House. And the tax cuts and pro-growth provisions will drive our economy even further into the Golden Age."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Newsweek that the "passage of the Big Beautiful Bill is a win for law and order and the safety and security of the American people. This $165 billion in funding will help the Department of Homeland Security and our brave law enforcement further deliver on President Trump's mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN."
Under the OBBB, ICE will receive $45 billion to expand its detention capacity to nearly 100,000 beds, $14 billion for transportation and removals, $8 billion to hire 10,000 new deportation officers, and billions more for state and local cooperation programs, technology upgrades, and incentives to retain ICE personnel.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill could leave 11.8 million more Americans uninsured by 2034 and increase the federal deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the next 10 years.
The bill's proposed cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are expected to push millions of low-income families off vital services. Advocates warn that the trade-off will have devastating consequences for working-class communities.
"Today's vote on final passage of the Big Ugly Bill in the House of Representatives was a rubber stamp by the Republican majority of the Senate's extreme version of the bill, and a slap in the face of the millions who will lose health care coverage, SNAP benefits, and whose families will be torn apart by aggressive funding of ICE detentions," Hector Sanchez Barba, President and CEO of Mi Familia Vota, said.
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, condemned the legislation as "cruel and corrupt."
"Every yes vote from Congress that passed this cruel and corrupt legislation doubles down on a dangerous agenda — an agenda that ends doctor visits for hardworking people and their families, that takes food from the mouths of children, and that callously cuts mental health support to students," Wiley said.
"What does it give us instead? More ICE raids on two-year-olds and high school students, on grandparents, and on workers. It gives us poorer schools and richer billionaires. It literally uses our tax dollars to drive inequality and the stripping away of civil rights, which this president promises with the stroke of his poisoned pen," she added.
Immigrant youth-led network United We Dream Action called the bill "monstrous" and vowed to build a "multi-racial and working-class movement" to resist what they called "deadly policies."
"Hospitals will be forced to shut their doors and families nationwide will foot the bill of higher food prices and skyrocketing utility costs while our taxpayer dollars go to massive for-profit ICE detention camps and torture prisons abroad," the group told Newsweek.
While Republicans have touted the bill as a win for border security, fractures have emerged even within the GOP ranks over the steep cuts to social programs. Some moderate Republicans voiced concern over the political fallout of stripping healthcare and food aid from millions while massively boosting immigration enforcement.
"It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities," Republican Senator Thom Tillis said.
"This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population."
Congressman Mark Harris defended the measure, saying: "This bill gives President Trump the tools he needs to finish securing the border by providing $175 billion in new funding. It will allow for completion of the border wall, fund ICE deportation efforts, and hire and train new border patrol agents."
Across the aisle, Democratic lawmakers are warning of the consequences of the legislation.
"I don't think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ICE," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said in a post on Bluesky. "This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA, & others combined."
Amid all the backlash, the bill will land on President Trump's desk right in time for his self-imposed July 4 deadline, giving the Republicans a big win as they lay out the groundwork for carrying out a hardline immigration agenda.
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