$160 Billion to Detain and Deport: Congress's "Reconciliation" Bill is a Betrayal of Priorities...

[Nevilledog]

https://www.wola.org/analysis/160-billion-to-detain-and-deport-congresss-reconciliation-bill-is-a-betrayal-of-priorities-and-will-harm-the-most-vulnerable/

Early on Thursday May 22, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill with a historically massive mix of budget cuts and new spending. The cuts are likely to hurt the poorest Americans. The spending is likely to change the face of U.S. migration enforcement in ways that the United States may feel for decades.

The bill now goes on to the Senate. It is advancing under an infrequently invoked legislative rule called “ reconciliation,” allowing it to pass the Senate on a simple majority, without the filibuster rule that usually requires 60 out of 100 senators’ votes to end debate and vote. Both chambers’ Republican majorities seek to pass this bill even if it lacks a single Democratic vote. The Senate will now consider and pass its version of the bill, then both houses will resolve differences and send it to President Trump for his signature, likely by July.

The “reconciliation” bill includes some measures that will be especially onerous to the migrant population in the United States, like huge fees to apply for statuses, bars to receiving assistance, and a new tax on transfers of money (remittances) for non-citizens. There’s a lot to break down, but this piece focuses on the incredible scale of what the U.S. Congress is proposing to spend on enforcement and border security. The reconciliation bill’s mammoth dimensions are not getting the attention and scrutiny that they deserve.

We have never seen anything come close to the level of border hardening and massive deportation enforcement resources foreseen in this bill. The House version would provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with over $160 billion in new border and immigration enforcement resources over the next four and a half years. That dwarfs what the Bush administration spent on border and immigration enforcement following the September 11, 2001 attacks ( $38.7 billion, or about $70 billion in current dollars).

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