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NNIRR Condemns the Passage of the Budget Reconciliation Bill and Its Attack on Immigrants and Working Families | |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 3, 2025 The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) strongly condemns today’s passage of H.R. 1—the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill”—a sweeping budget reconciliation package that delivers unprecedented harm to immigrant communities, working families, and low-income people across the United States. This bill does not promote equity or economic stability. Instead, it slashes essential social programs like Medicaid, SNAP, ACA subsidies, and Medicare—programs that millions rely on for survival—while allocating $1.1 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and corporations. The bill deliberately excludes immigrant families from food assistance, healthcare access, and tax credits, deepening poverty and structural inequality. H.R. 1 also authorizes at least $125 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to initial analysis, making it the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the nation—surpassing the combined budgets of all other federal enforcement agencies | |
This bill also dismantles critical protections for children under the Flores Settlement Agreement, a landmark legal standard that establishes minimum requirements for the detention, treatment, and release of migrant children in federal custody. By eliminating these safeguards, the legislation allows for the indefinite incarceration of children in unsafe conditions, bodily searches that violate child welfare standards, and expands fast-track deportation processes that deny children legal representation and due process. These actions undermine children's rights and pose serious risks to their physical and psychological well-being. Such policies are not only morally indefensible—they are a direct attack on the fundamental dignity and rights of millions of people. This bill is not a budget—it is a blueprint for exclusion, cruelty, and racialized punishment. It entrenches a system that criminalizes migration, destabilizes families, and strips basic protections from those experiencing heightened levels of vulnerability, including children, refugees, and survivors of violence. NNIRR reaffirms its unwavering commitment to defending immigrant and refugee communities against systemic injustice. We will continue to mobilize at all levels to challenge this legislation and advocate for a future grounded in human dignity, justice, and human rights for all. In solidarity, The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights | |
