Today, the U.S. Senate voted 50-50, with a tiebreaking vote cast by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, to pass a House Reconciliation Bill (H.R.1), which will cause devastating harm to U.S. communities.
National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) Executive Director Mary Meg McCarthy issued the following statement in response:
“With one vote, U.S. senators have chosen to eliminate the public services infrastructure Americans have relied on for generations and redirect our tax dollars to private prison corporations and billionaires who support the Trump regime’s authoritarian policies. This bill will defund programs that reduce poverty and provide access to health care and food security for people and families from all walks of life — all to funnel an incomprehensible $150 billion to finance the most extreme expansion of immigrant detentions and deportations in U.S. history. This budget promises to supercharge U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests that disappear community members, leave children parentless, and threaten constitutional and due process rights for all of us.
“U.S. House representatives still have an opportunity to stop this bill from becoming law and this harm from becoming our reality. We implore our congressional representatives to remember the oath they took to serve their constituents and uphold the Constitution, and use the power of their vote to stop our tax dollars from being redistributed in order to fuel an agenda of hate and cruelty.”