Big Beautiful Bill?
The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” spends lots of money on immigration enforcement but where is it going? This represents one of the largest expansions of immigration enforcement in history but the spending has actually created a bottleneck leaving more and more people stuck in horrible conditions in ICE detention facilities. Here is a rough breakdown of the $170 billion allocated toward immigration and border enforcement:
$100+ billion (by 2029) for ICE funding
$45 billion for expanding detention capacity, buying tens of thousands of new beds.
Nearly $30 billion for hiring officers and deportation operations.
In short, the bill heavily funds arrests, detention and deportation infrastructure. That presents a clear picture of how to get more and more immigrants into detention, but what about getting them out? That’s where our courts come in.
$3.3 billion allocated to the Department of Justice which oversees immigration courts. This funding is a broad lump sum, not dedicated specifically to hiring judges. The courts must compete with other DOJ priorities for those funds.
The big constraint: a hard cap on judges! The law explicitly limits the number of immigration judges to 800 nationwide starting in 2028. Current levels are already close at almost 700 judges nationwide.
With enforcement spending increasing by hundreds of percent and court capacity increasing only marginally it’s pretty easy to anticipate the outcomes. The result is a system that can detain far more people than it can efficiently process, increasing delays and legal challenges rather than speeding them up. People are often held for months or even years before their cases are reviewed by the court. With help from an attorney (immigration attorneys are limited, hard to find and hard to afford), immigrants are filing “habeas corpus” pleas - which requires the government to prove that their detention is lawful. If not, they must be released or given a proper hearing.
What can we do? If you believe, as I do, that this system is poorly planned and designed for cruel detention, not resolution. I believe that we can all be advocates for our immigrant neighbors. Here are some steps you can take:
ADVOCATE:
Everyone can advocate for the humane treatment and rights of our immigrant neighbors. World Relief has outlined several actions you can do to support our neighbors. See the list at: https://worldrelief.org/advocate/
As for me, I will:
Continue to volunteer to serve the detainees in helping them get home after being released from ICE
Donate to World Relief
Donate to legal organizations that provide pro bono legal service for immigrants such as Northwest Immigrant Rights Project https://www.nwirp.org/
Keep myself informed about the treatment and conditions for our immigrant neighbors
Contact my representatives about my concerns
Join a protest
Keep writing to all of you!
What about you - what ideas do you have for how we might love our neighbors?