Take Action Today! Tell Congress to Oppose Trump's MAGA-Party Attempts to Triple the Size of the Criminally Inhumane For-Profit Detention-to-Deportation-with-No-Due-Process Pipeline
In addition to eroding what's left of the social safety net, the "reconciliation" process aims to shut down lawful immigration — and that's a genie not easily stuffed back into its bottle.
We’re at the precipice, folks, staring into a deep, dark, bottomless pit. It’s a national moral reckoning that requires each and every one of us to face into the wind and take a stand for the future of US democracy and the rule of law … Today.
Trump & Co’s big, so-called “beautiful” bill, right now being bullied through Congress, represents the most dramatic slashing of social safety net programs in US history. It seeks to eliminate healthcare and food assistance for the most needy. Cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) similarly threaten millions, while the morbidly rich billionaire class benefits. What’s more, it will hand to Department of Homeland “Security” Secretary Kristi Noem — who let slip she has no idea what Habeas Corpus means as she greenlighted illegal third-country deportations to a country ripped apart by a war that has displaced millions — a Law & Order war chest worth nearly $150 Billion.
The bill is now in the House of Representatives, and the MAGA party faithful are working hard to ink it into law before they fly home to enjoy Memorial Day festivities with the same constituencies they are about to blindside.
The bill may indeed be big, but it is anything but beautiful. (Find the current draft here.) It poses a generational threat to community safety across the USA, depriving children and families of nutrition and health support programs, while supercharging an immigration enforcement agenda that undermines all our constitutional protections. It challenges the very foundations of the rule of law. It is morally reprehensible.
CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS RIGHT NOW. TELL THEM THE BUDGET RECONCILIATION BILL MUST BE STOPPED!
For those of you who have never done this before, no fear! I’ve provided an easy-peasy call-in script below. If you’re already convinced, first share this post, then scroll down and get started. If you’d like more information, keep reading…
According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association:
The US House of Representatives is currently considering a budget reconciliation bill that hands the Trump administration a blank check of $146.3 billion for mass deportations, without any meaningful protections for due process or transparency, risking widespread abuses and grave errors. This unprecedented expansion of enforcement authority will come at the cost of deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and other essential domestic programs that millions of Americans depend on. Instead of investing in real solutions that strengthen the USA, while building a fair, orderly, and effective immigration system, the budget reconciliation bill:
Rewrites immigration law and further chips away at due process protections, while authorizing expulsions to harmful situations in direct violation of existing legal statutes.
Harms children experiencing hardship and separates families of hard-working residents living among us without documentation.
Blocks many people, such as green card and asylum applicants, as well as those living in safety under temporary protected status and humanitarian parole, from accessing lawful immigration pathways created by Congress through the imposition of extortionist fees.
Adds $146.3 billion for opaque, unaccountable, mass deportations efforts that 52% of Americans oppose, of which
$27 billion is earmarked for the ICE Gestapo’s continued raids, abductions, and forced disappearances, while another
$45 billion will expand the ICE for-profit black-site detention Gulag from 41,500 beds to 120,000. And that number doesn’t include those in El Salvador’s CECOT concentration camp!
The bill gives more power and authority to what I identify in my book, Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands, as “the least transparent, most troubled law enforcement agency in the land.”
ICE is already notorious for its wrongful arrests, egregious and abusive detention conditions, and cruel deportation practices, all of which dehumanize people seeking safety and dignity in direct violation of US law and the Constitution — it’s all documented in Chapters 39-33 of Crossing the Line.
Having dismantled federal detention, civil rights, and other oversight agencies in their first 100 days, the Trump regime is already operating without accountability and in defiance of court orders. A detention-to-deportation war chest of this magnitude will result in more unprecedented suffering — a boulder roll of trauma that will rock the world, making the US less secure, not more, and emboldened organized crime.
These provisions aren’t just harmful to the undocumented families and individuals living among us, they’re a coordinated attack on working people, students, public oversight, and climate progress. They are an attack on our children’s futures as well as their children’s futures, as well. They legislate changes that will undermine our democracy for generations.
CONGRESS MUST OPPOSE RECKLESS SPENDING WITH NO TRANSPARENCY OR ACCOUNTABILITY!
The budget now up for vote fails to offer real solutions that help all of us access the services we need and ensure that those navigating the crazy, complicated, and overtly cruel immigration system are treated fairly and given meaningful due process.
It is unrealistic to think that the Trump regime will ever agree to building an immigration system that is fair, efficient, and protects US families and businesses nationwide (unless you’re a white supremacist Afrikaner). If the best we can do is thwart the madness, then thwart the madness we must!
Call your representatives NOW and tell them to vote NO on this dangerous reconciliation bill.
Take These Two Simple Actions Today:
1) Call your Members of Congress:
Dial the Capitol Switchboard, +1(202) 224-3121, and ask to be connected to your representative, or find your representative’s contact details here.
Script for Members of Congress
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent voting at [ZIP CODE]. I’m calling to urge [Rep NAME] to vote NO on the budget reconciliation bill.This bill is full of dangerous cuts and extremist policies that hurt students, workers, our undocumented neighbors and friends, the climate, and basic democratic checks and balances. It’s nothing more than a tax giveaway for the rich, paid for by gutting programs that matter to real people, as it enriches a for-profit detention-to-deportation pipeline already rife with legal and human rights abuses.
Please oppose it!
2) Encourage three friends to do the same (and encourage them to each ask three friends, as well):
Friend script
Hey — just a heads-up: MAGA-Republicans are pushing a budget reconciliation bill through Congress that represents more tax breaks for the rich, paid for by gutting programs that matter to real people. It enriches a for-profit detention-to-deportation pipeline already rife with legal and human rights abuses. It’s packed with the worst-of-the-worst right-wing wishlist items, as it gives the MAGA-party faithful more power to block regulations. I just called my reps to demand they vote no — can you do the same? It’s super fast: +1 (202) 224-3121.
Let’s stop this money and power grab before it becomes law.
Stay strong, everyone. The only way through this is…
Together.
In solidarity ✊🏼
Sarah
PS: Please join me this Sunday, May 25, 2:30-4:00 pm ET for the third meet up of the HOPE KNOWS NO BORDERS BOOK CLUB & WEBINAR SERIES. Click the image to register:
