Partisan Safety Net Cuts Target Lawfully Present Immigrants, U.S. Citizens in Immigrant Families
EL PASO, TEXAS — The United States Senate narrowly passed a budget package Tuesday that makes deep cuts to health and social services, especially for U.S. citizens and people in immigrant families. The bill passed in the Senate builds on the already-horrible House-passed package and makes it even worse.
While the Trump White House and congressional Republicans often talk about the package as a response to “illegal” immigration, people who are undocumented are already excluded from federally funded safety net programs under current law. The bill’s cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and the Child Tax Credit, actually target U.S. citizens – overwhelmingly children – in immigrant families, and lawfully present immigrants. Lawfully present immigrants whose status is based on being a domestic violence survivor, a refugee, a human trafficking survivor or who hold other “humanitarian” statuses are specifically targeted.
The legislation also provides hundreds of billions in additional funding for immigration enforcement. This includes funding to further militarize enforcement and build detention centers for children and families. The vote comes in the wake of revelations that the Trump administration has wrongly deported U.S. citizens and lawfully-present immigrants, and has violated court orders.
In response to the vote, the Protecting Immigrant Families Coalition (PIF) released the following statements.
“Republicans voted to take health care, food, and money from their own constituents to fund tax cuts for billionaires and family separation,” said PIF director Adriana Cadena. “The Trump administration is a runaway train, and Congress should be pumping the breaks, not stepping on the gas.”
“Instead of tackling the true drivers of high health care costs—corporate greed and profiteering—this bill targets immigrant families, cutting Medicaid and other vital health provisions. These cuts will harm the most vulnerable, deny care, and push more families into medical debt,” said Mona Shah, Senior Director of Policy and Strategy, Community Catalyst. “Immigrants play an essential role in our communities, and when they’re denied access to care, we all suffer. We need a health care system that prioritizes people over profits, not policies that divide us.”
"The Senate's budget package--passed along party lines--puts politics over people, punishing lawfully present immigrants who have been granted asylum or refuge after overcoming crisis or persecution," said Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC). "The cuts would also undermine the health and economies of entire communities and devastate farmers and grocers. Congress should be building a nation free from hunger, instead of taking food off the tables of millions of families by slashing billions of dollars from SNAP."
