‘Big Beautiful Bill’ portends ‘unprecedented’ impact on immigrant families, workers
It was one of the most contentious issues of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and now it’s an estimated $170 billion component of the Senate version of the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”: immigration enforcement and deportation.
The bill passed the Senate July 1 after Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie, and it now heads back to the House of Representatives for final approval. On X, Vance argued that aggressive immigration enforcement was worth the bill’s cuts to social supports (opposed by the U.S. bishops) and the anticipated several trillion dollars added to the national debt.
“The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits. The OBBB fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass,” Vance, a Catholic, argued on X prior to the bill’s passage, adding, “Everything else — the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.”