Senate Fails to Put Any Checks or Balances on Trump Administration’s Mass Detention and Deportation Plans

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, the Senate approved the FY 2025 budget resolution. The bill includes about $350 billion in funding for immigration enforcement. Leadership from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) responded to the bill’s passage in the following statement:

AILA President Kelli Stump stated, “This budget fails to impose any Constitutionally guaranteed guardrails or protections on President Trump's mass deportation targets. Even worse, it focuses solely on enforcement and deportation instead of improving our archaic immigration laws. In my nearly 20 years of experience in immigration law, representing individuals, families, and employers from both sides of the aisle, the one thing they all have in common is their desire for legal pathways. This budget hands the Trump administration vast sums to implement a mass deportation plan without building in other legal avenues for immigrants. Congress has an obligation to ensure that taxpayer money is spent in ways that actually make communities safer and more prosperous, not political theater that bans and targets immigrants. If enacted, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) budgets would increase by ten-fold from their current levels of $30 billion. Americans will see ICE agents doing raids in their communities -- even at schools, churches, their favorite restaurants, and hospitals. What if we used that money to fix the system instead of incite fear?”

AILA Executive Director Ben Johnson added, “This astounding level of funding will not make America safer. Americans want an immigration system that ensures public safety and the rule of law, not more chaos and fear in American communities. Under our legal system, the rule of law also requires fairness and respect for due process, but the Trump-controlled Senate rejected any proposal to inject those principles into the bill passed yesterday. A month into this administration, ICE’s own reports show that many, if not most, of the people being arrested and detained have absolutely no criminal record. Mass deportations will harm millions of mixed-status American families, tank the economy, and jeopardize national security. Missing from this budget is any understanding that immigrants have been and continue to be vital to America’s success.”