House Republicans on Wednesday advanced legislation to back a series of President Trump’s immigration priorities, raising fees on those seeking refuge in the United States while boosting resources to detain and deport a record number of migrants.
The measure advanced by the House Judiciary Committee includes funding to support the removal of 1 million migrants a year — a lofty goal that would well outpace the number of deportations carried out by any prior administration.
That was coupled with $45 billion in funding to detain 100,000 migrants — almost triple the daily average under former President Biden and more than double the rate currently detained under Trump.
The Judiciary panel's bill comes alongside one weighed in the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday, where Republicans added more than $45 billion to construct Trump’s border wall, forecasting 700 miles of new construction, along with new river barriers and other barriers.
Both measures, along with those crafted by other committees, will be combined into one massive package full of Trump's domestic priorities that Republicans aim to pass with only GOP votes.
The bills were excoriated by Democrats who called the package of immigration policies antithetical to American values, particularly as the Trump administration expels migrants — in some cases to a Salvadoran prison — without court hearings to review claims of criminality.
“My colleagues say these extreme measures are necessary to deport gang members, violent criminals, ‘the worst of the worst.’ But the Trump Administration is not targeting the worst of the worst. They’re arresting judges. They’re using federal agents to round-up law-abiding members of our communities with no criminal records, parents of American children, husbands and wives of American spouses—people who pose no threat to public safety,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
“If Donald Trump can sweep noncitizens off the street and fly them to a torturer’s prison in El Salvador with no Due Process, he can do it to citizens too, because if there is no cue process, no fair hearing, you have no opportunity to object.”
Under the Judiciary package, asylum seekers for the first time would be charged $1,000 to apply for the protection offered to those fleeing danger and persecution. It’s currently free.
The bill rolls out a series of other fees: $1,000 for those who enter the U.S. under parole, $3,500 for sponsors of unaccompanied children, and $500 for Temporary Protected Status, a protection from deportation given by the Department of Homeland Security for those from a country where dangerous conditions limit their return.
All would also be charged $550 for work authorization once in the country.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) defended the increase in fees, saying it was part of a package that would raise $77 billion to help offset an $81 billion bill.
“Existing fees in the immigration system have not been updated, in some cases for decades, and in many cases, these have never been applied at all. This system has left these agencies with funding shortfalls paid for by American taxpayers,” he said.
“These and other resources and fees in this reconciliation text will ensure the Trump administration has the adequate resources to enforce immigration laws in a fiscally responsible way.”
Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) accused Republicans of “commodifying” protections.
“They want people fleeing violence and persecution to pay $1,000 bucks so they can apply. They want people to pay $550 every six months to work. They want people to pay $900 to appeal rulings against them. They are commodifying the immigration system,” he said.
And Rep. Sidney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) contrasted that with the Trump administration's plans for a “Gold Card,” which would allow foreigners planning to invest $5 million or more a visa that would put them on a pathway to citizenship.
For Democrats, much of Wednesday's markup was devoted to showing the stakes of Trump’s immigration agenda.
Raskin noted the case of a Venezuelan man deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador based in part on his having a tattoo with a soccer ball with a crown over it, a nod not to a gang but the former soccer player's love of the team Real Madrid.
Multiple Democrats pointed to the case of two U.S. citizen children who were deported alongside their mother to Honduras, including a 4-year-old son with Stage 4 cancer who was removed without his medication. Attorneys for another woman deported with her two-year-old citizen child said she was removed with little time to figure out what to do with her child.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) referenced a series of recent actions in parallel with the poem “First They Came.”
“Then they came back for the students studying on the college campuses, who were here on student visas…And I didn't say anything about it, because I'm not a student on a foreign visa. And then they came and arrested a white female judge, a state court judge presiding over her courtroom and the litigants therein, managing the affairs of her court. They came and arrested her and walked her to jail, and I didn't say anything then, because not a judge,” he said.
Republicans on the panel voted down a series of proposed amendments from Democrats, including one that would bar the deportation of U.S. citizens, with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) calling it “batshit crazy” that such a resolution would even be needed to stem the tide of problematic deportations.
Beyond the immigration priorities in the bill, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) drew attention to the very last provision of the bill — one that would limit the ability of courts to enforce contempt orders issued against the Trump administration.
Goldman accused the Trump administration of flouting a Supreme Court directive to “facilitate” the return of mistakenly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
“You would think that [my Republican colleagues] would say, ‘Huh, let's make sure that our president is actually following court orders, because if he's not following court orders, then why would anyone else follow court orders – and our entire system breaks down.’ That is clearly what Donald Trump wants to do. He wants to be a king who gets to make all of these decisions himself,” he said.
The legislation also includes two bills previously passed by the House that seek to limit regulatory power, giving either Congress the power to strike down regulations promulgated by agencies.
The bill rolls in the REINS Act, short for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny, that would require regulations to get approval from Congress before they could go into effect. The bill has passed the House in prior years but has not advanced to the president’s desk.
The legislation also includes the Midnight Rules Relief Act, which would allow Congress in one vote to strike down any regulation finalized since August, roughly the final six months of former President Biden’s term. Congress has the power to unwind regulation, but must do so on a regulation-by-regulation basis. The House passed that bill in February.
In the House Homeland package, lawmakers also voted for $5 billion in upgrades to U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities as well as funding for more than 8,000 new agents.
But in doing so, they rejected a series of amendments from Democrats, including one to bar deporting migrants to foreign prisons, including Guantanamo, as well as another to prohibit the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from delaying grants to those needing disaster assistance.
“Homeland Republicans proudly advanced funding to give Border Patrol agents the tools they have long requested to accomplish their homeland security mission in the field while protecting our communities,” Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said in a statement.
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